House of the Setting Sun 3: Day Terrors
by BattleKitten
Summary: Revised with the end and everything! Dawn starts her new school and learns that not all monsters are supernatural. The slayers tackle a Mama demon. Faith gets stuck with a new role.
1. Teaser

Day Terrors

**Teaser**

The blonde junior stood in the centre of the cafeteria, her hands in the air and tears streaming down her cheeks. Her terrified eyes were fixed on the police officer in front of her. Listening and obeying his commands meant she didn't have to think any further than his next words, and that was a good thing. If she was left to her own devices the guns would make her panic and the sounds of the other kids sobbing and whispering would make her cry harder and the dead boy at her feet would make her scream.

So she kept her blurred vision on the face of the officer in front of her and followed his orders methodically, like a programmed robot. That's how she felt as she leaned over slowly and placed her palms on the table top next to her, like it was all happening on automatic. She held one hand behind her as a separate cop barked at her from behind and then the other one.

The handcuffs made her wrists sore immediately; she'd never been one for metal bracelets. She didn't complain though, she didn't make a sound, she just allowed herself to be half led, half pushed out of the cafeteria, as the cop barked out her rights.

Around her she could the whispers of her friends mixed in with hushed voices of the rest of the student body. This had to be a dream, one of those where you're at school and you're naked. If she looked down now she'd see that she was naked.

Clinging to that hope, because she could find another one, she looked down, but she was dressed. Dressed in the same plaid trousers and white shirt she'd arrived at school wearing that morning. That morning that had only been three hours ago but that now felt like a whole different life time. A life time when she wasn't a murderer.

As the cop urged her the final few feet out of the cafeteria, Janey turned her head to look at the crime scene. A crime scene she had caused. Looking back at her was about a hundred shocked, scared faces. Some she knew some she didn't, the one thing they all had in common was the way they were looking at her. There was only one face who wasn't looking at her, wasn't taking any notice of her at all, and that was the face of Rik Hogan. He couldn't look at her even if he wanted to, a) because he was dead and b) because his face was now facing the wrong way to the rest of his body.

* * *

Kennedy, Alison, Miranda and Cici were patrolling one of the two graveyards in Boudenver. Kennedy wasn't expecting any trouble. There had been no recent burials so it was unlikely any fledglings would rise but it seemed like the right place to start the younger girls training. It was where she had done most of hers.

They were creeping around the old tombstones and as usual Alison, Miranda and Cici were whispering to each other, something about ghosts this time.

Kennedy just rolled her eyes. 'It's just as well this isn't a real patrol in a live, ha ha, graveyard.' She thought.

Hushed voices ahead of her made her stop and hold an arm out to shush the others too. 'Maybe this graveyard isn't so dead after all.'

She motioned for the others to wait there and crept around another grave marker to get a better look at the speakers.

There were three of them, holding a piece of paper or parchment on a flat stone and studying it intently.

Kennedy waited for her vampire tinglies to kick in, but they didn't. In truth the only time they had was around the Ubervamps, normal ones didn't do a lot for her. Half the time in L.A. she had never even known Angel was in the room until she saw him.

Maybe if she could get closer she'd be able to tell if they were vampires or just average-up-to-no-good-in-a-grave-yard-at-night humans. She crept around another of the large, leaning stones and then another. Now she could see they were vampires, she didn't need any tingles to be able to see the bumpies and the teeth.

She was about to jump up and shout charge, or possibly something a little cooler, when a Tasmanian Devil spun into the middle of the vamps and created a dust storm.

When the dust settled Taz turned out to be blonde, petite and preferred to be called Buffy, not Taz.

Kennedy stayed crouched behind the stone staring up at her. Buffy looked around, and cocked her head slightly as if she could hear something. When nothing became apparent she turned her attention to the paper still lying on the stone. She blew some dust off of it and looked closely. Kennedy watched her just as closely and she chuckled softly when Buffy made a little frustrated noise, folder the paper and shoved it into her pants pocket, obviously unable to understand it.

The blonde Slayer spun on her heels and sprinted off across the grass. Kennedy watched her vault a couple of the stones with complete ease and grace and waited until she cleared the cemetery wall with one bound before she stood up. Alison was standing next to her.

"She's back then." Said Alison.

Kennedy nodded and led the way out of the graveyard. "In more ways than one."


	2. Act one

Kennedy and the girls were all hiding behind a bush halfway up Stockburn Hill. They were tracking a nasty looking demon with horns all down it's broad snout and across the top of its head and armour plating across its back and front. It looked like a huge spiky tortoise standing on two legs.

Kennedy had no idea what it was but figured it could be good training for the younger Slayers, between the three of them they should be able to take it down and if they ran into trouble she'd be on hand to finish it off.

So they had been tracking it since just north of their own property waiting for the right time to pounce and that had come. Kennedy whispered some last words of advice and encouragement and was ready to deploy the first Slayer, when from the bushes on the other side of the trail a similar demon, although smaller, came crashing out to land in a heap.

The first demon turned to it and made a snuffling noise which was answered by the second demon as it rose to its hind legs. Then both turned to face the bushes on the far side to Kennedy and the girls. Who were all watching in surprise?

Their surprise grew when a third spiky tortoise came flying over the bushes to land on the first two and send them sprawling. Before any of the three could get to their feet Buffy crashed through the bushes and confronted them.

"Hey it's the three demons, I bet you're wondering who's been eating all you're porridge, huh?"

The largest demon had already got to his feet, made the snuffling noise at her and lumbered forwards. Actually, Kennedy realised, it looked like it lumbered but it didn't, it was really fast. It seemed that as soon as it started to move it was on her and Buffy had gone into some ninja style kick-kick-punch-kick combo.

The blonde held a vicious looking dagger in one hand and as she whirled around the beast she slashed out over and over again. Punching it with her right fist and slashing with the blade in her left. The thing roared in fury as it tried to follow her to hit her, but she was always just a little ahead. Soon it was covered in deep gashes, oozing green blood.

Another of the demons came in for the attack, but without even looking at it Buffy knocked it on its back with a side kick. It was stuck then, on its back. It rocked backwards and forwards but could find no leverage to turn itself over. The more frustrated it got the more its head thrashed around and it wasn't long before its head was stuck fast in the moist earth too. It lay there snuffling in anger and unable to do a thing about it.

Buffy had worn the big one down now and he must have been getting dizzy from trying to pin Buffy with his horns. She took advantage and dropped a kick to its kneecap, Kennedy assumed, before sweeping its legs out from under it. It landed heavily and she wasted no time in slitting its throat with the knife.

She quickly dispatched the incapacitated one and then fell flat on her face, the fresh smell of grass no doubt assaulting her nostrils, as she was charged from behind by the smallest demon.

Kennedy was about to run out and help but something stopped her and she remained crouched behind the bush. She needn't have worried. Before the small beast could take advantage of its advantage Buffy had rolled to the side and placed a firm kick to where its shell ended and its thigh, she assumed, began. It fell on top of her, its nose horns narrowly missing Buffy's face as she caught the creature by the aforementioned horns, wrapped her legs around the middle of its shell and twisted its head, hard.

All the Slayers heard the loud snap.

Buffy shook the corpse off of her and stood up, brushing her clothes off. She wiped the blade on the grass at her feet and studied the demons for a minute. When she was done she looked around, her eyes were narrowed and she cocked her head as if listening to something. Then appearing satisfied she took off at a run up the trail.

Kennedy let out the breath she hadn'trealised she was holding and shakily stood up.

She stared at the three demons dead on the trail. It had taken the blonde Slayer less than two minutes to kill all three of them. Kennedy had been leading the others in tracking one of them for the best part of an hour before she'd even thought of taking it on.

* * *

Kennedy flipped some toast onto the plate next to Willow's laptop and grabbing another slice for herself, began buttering it while she chatted.

"So there we were, ready to Slay and then there she was all lethal kicks and puns and blonde hair whipping around all over the place, until there was nothing left but blood and guts or dust and …more dust I guess. I know I've seen her fight with everything she's got, like on the Hellmouth, but this was just a typical Tuesday night massacre of evil. She crunched through some toast, not letting it stem the flow of her progress report. "It was like someone hit all her combo buttons at once and she just let loose."

Willow took a second out from her laptop screen to grin at her girlfriend. "Sounds like someone's got a little hero worship going on."

Kennedy pfft'd that idea, spraying toast crumbs over the screen. Leaning down to wipe them away before Willow let loose herself; she read what was on there.

"Dingoes ate my baby…Where have I heard that before?"

Willow totally forgot to be pissed off about the soggy crumbs. "Uh …It's a band, a band from Sunnydale. I had a poster inside my closet….I just saw something about them and figured I'd take a look."

Kennedy scanned the page quickly over Willow's shoulder. "Hmm seems like they're doing alright for themselves. Guess they were smart enough to get out of Sunnydale before the big finish."

"Yeah." Willow agreed nervously. She snapped the lid of the Mac down and smiling brightly she steered the chat into easier waters. "So Buffy's back and slaying, huh? That's good news; she was no fun being mopey Buffy all the time."

"Seems that way. We didn't engage with her, we were too worried about getting slayed by accident, but she seemed okay. Pretty damn good actually. It might be nice if next time she left us something to kill too though. I can't give the girls field exercises if the fields have already been cleared."

"Well I'm just glad she's feeling better." Willow finally began eating her toast; Kennedy downed a carton of orange juice.

Buffy came striding through the back door. "Speak of the devil." The red-head announced.

Buffy dropped her duffle bag to the floor and fell into battle stance. "There's a devil?" The blonde glanced around warily.

The Wicca laughed. "I was talking about you."

Kennedy just regarded her critically, 'Damn she's on edge.'

"Oh." Buffy retrieved her pack from the floor.

"So, how was L.A.?" Willow asked cheerfully. "Have you been jogging this morning, already?" She glanced at the kitchen clock, it was barely past seven.

"Uh no I just got back. L.A. was …there. I'm going to take a shower." She disappeared up the stairs.

"Yeah that holiday really released her inner ray of sunshine." Said Kennedy.

* * *

Dawn hurriedly shovelled bacon and eggs into her mouth, aware that Giles didn't like to be kept waiting when it was his turn to drive her to school. He and Xander were already outside admiring the new truck Xander had purchased the day before. She was just swirling the last bite of egg around in her ketchup when Buffy thumped down the back stairs.

"Buffy, hi, when did you get back?" She asked still chewing.

Buffy gave her sister's head a hug on her way to grab the car keys. "An hour ago. Are you ready?"

"Uh what for?" Dawn carried her plate to the sink and rinsed it.

"Uh School. Ring any bells?" She picked Dawn's book bag up from the middle of the floor and thrust it at her. "You have started?"

Dawn shook her head while she caught up with events. "Uh yeah yesterday, but it's cool. Giles was going to run me in before he and Xander went to buy wood. You're off the hook."

"I'm never off the hook. You are my hook. Anyway who would you rather be seen arriving with – the lovable, but stuffy and speed challenged British guy or you're cool and beautiful older, but not by much, sister?"

Dawn pretended to think about it and Buffy cuffed her on the arm, causing Dawn to clutch at it in an only semi pantomiming gesture.

"Car now. Before I give you're new teachers a reason to think that I'm beating you." Buffy ushered her out of the door.

"Like the reason that you really are beating me?"

"That would be it."

Xander and Giles both called hello to Buffy and seemed eager to talk, if only about the new truck, but the Chosen One cut them off.

"Sorry guys, I'm taking Dawn to school, we'll catch up later okay."

* * *

Faith heard the footsteps coming before they even turned on to her landing. She wondered what was going on. It was still before six so no one was out of their cells yet and the regular patrols were every twenty minutes and the last one had been and gone by only ten minutes ago.

She rolled over on the bunk and stared at the grey light of pre-dawn coming through the bars.

"Another day, another …well, day I guess." She told her cell.

The footsteps, two sets of them her ears had picked out, stopped outside her cell door and she tensed wondering who it could be.

The lock rattled as a key was used and then it swung inwards letting in the pus yellow light from the landings. Faith sat up, okay so this was new. Early morning visits? Maybe they'd brought her breakfast in bed.

"Prisoner 430019 move to the back of the cell." A gruff voiced guard bellowed.

Faith got up slowly and did as she was bid. "Jeez, Tony what's with all the commotion, I was sleeping ya'know."

Tony the guard flicked a light switch on the outside wall and the cell was illuminated for what it was. It also illuminated a short, blonde girl who was shaking like a new leaf in a spring downpour.

"Yeah well now you're not. It seems you're being given another chance at the whole playing with others thing. Here's you're new roomie." He gave the blonde girl a small shove into the room. "Try not to kill this one, or get her transferred to the nut wing." The door slammed shut again behind him and the keys jangled in the lock once more.

'Well this is unexpected.' Faith thought as she looked the terrified girl over. 'What the hell are they putting this poor kid in with me for? She's probably only in for a parking fine.' She didn't look more than sixteen.

"He was only joking about me killing my last cell-mate." Faith tried to reassure her. "She's fine, hardly any scarring at all."

The blonde huddled in on herself and began to cry.

* * *

Dawn was sitting quietly in the passenger seat waiting to see if her sister would start a conversation. When she continued to drive in silence Dawn took it upon herself.

"Soooo, did you and Faith sort things out. I mean, you were gone a week, so you must have right?"

"Uh I don't know, things are complicated, what with her being in prison and all that." Buffy didn't take her eyes from the road,

'That in itself is a warning sign.' Thought Dawn. 'She never keeps her eyes on the road when she's driving.' She tried a different approach.

"But it must have been good to see her. I'm surprised you bothered to come back yet, we all thought you'd stick around with Angel until the appeal. Getting in everyone's way 'cause you couldn't bear to parted from her or something."

The approach obviously wasn't different enough.

"Hardly Dawn. I've got better things to do with my time than …" Buffy took a deep breath off of Dawn's wounded look and forced herself to continue in a softer tone. "It just wasn't necessary. Faith has to concentrate on her appeal and I have responsibilities here – like you." She rested her hand on her sister's arm for a moment before returning it to the wheel.

"Well not that I'm not glad you're back or anything, but it would have been fine to stay away had you wanted to. I'm living in a house chock full 'o' Slayers. Besides three weeks isn't that long away and then you'd both have been coming home right?"

"Nothings guaranteed Dawn."

Dawn's face fell again. "But she will get out right?"

Buffy shrugged. "No reason why she should. After all she is guilty of the crimes she went to prison for. The whole appeal case sounds like it's just the truth twisted up into knots to look prettier than it is. Faith is a murderer, Dawn, just because we're prepared to over look that because she helped save the world, doesn't mean a jury will."

"Things didn't go well, did they? In L.A.?" It wasn't really a question.

"They went exactly as I should have expected them too." Buffy swung the car around in front of Dawn's school.

"What's that mean?" Asked Dawn, grabbing her bag in preparation for jumping out of the car.

"Faith's not the only idiot." Buffy gave her sister a tense smile. "Have a good day."

* * *

The two men had driven to the back of the lumber yard and purchased the wood together, now they were parked in 'The Mouth' parking lot.

"Right, you go get you're shopping and I'll grab us a table. Do you want me to order for you?" Asked Xander as he climbed out of the shiny new truck.

"No thank you, and are you sure we have to eat here today. Can't we just go home and have a sandwich." Pleaded Giles.

"No. Sooner or later you will have to sample the wares of Boudenver. I would have happily gone to Barnies and settled for a bar meal, but you wanted a proper lunch. So voila." He pointed to the wide plate glass window of the diner.

Giles sighed with resignation and followed him out of the truck. This was supposed to be a bonding day for the men of the family and so compromise was called for. He wondered for the dozenth time why he'd let himself be talked into this bonding thing in the first place, Xander wasn't so bad, but…

Andrew sat up from the bed of the truck with his arms crossed over his chest in a fake vampire pose. For a second he looked at the other two men with a serious expression but then he couldn't help himself and grinned.

"This truck is so awesome. It got a bit windy though." He jumped out of the back. "And I think I've got grit in my eye." He rubbed at it.

Giles shook his head and walked away, leaving them behind with out another word. He crossed the road and went into the supermarket. Except it wasn't really a supermarket so much as a market. Not that that mattered today, for once he wasn't here to fuss over the pitiful selection of teas they had or their lack of anything resembling marmalade.

He sauntered around the general store, pretending to be absorbed in the meagre merchandise while he waited for the white haired old man behind the counter to finish with a customer. When he had the Englishman grabbed some packets of pasta, it really was extraordinary how much pasta the house went through, and made his was to the front of the shop.

The shop keeper greeted him with a small smile and took the packages.

"Will that be all sir?"

"Uh yes thank you." Giles extended his hand politely. "I'm Mr Giles. My friends and I have recently moved into Setting Sun camp out on East Lake road."

The shop keeper briefly shook his hand and rang up the pasta on an ancient till.

"I know who you are sir." The old man never lost his smile, but the glint in his eye, Giles was sure hadn't been there a moment ago.

"Really?" Giles asked leadingly.

"Of course sir. A small town produces a city size level of gossip."

"Ah of course. I suspect you knew what we liked for breakfast before we'd even unpacked our bags." Joked Giles, while he tried to place the man's accent. He didn't sound altogether American, or English.

"I wouldn't go that far sir, but I imagine I will come to know, if you continue to shop with me." The shop keeper put the pasta into a brown bag and handed it to Giles.

"Setting Sun Camp is a very pretty name." Said Giles beginning his investigation. "Do you happen to know if there's a story behind it."

"I've learned there's a story behind most things Mr. Giles. Perhaps it's a nice place from which to watch the sunset."

"Ah yes." Giles regrouped. "Uh how about the camp itself, I imagine there's quite a few tales to be told."

"I shouldn't think I know any more about the place than you do sir. I'm an old man and I don't get about like I used to. I sure you'll be happy there though sir, I think you'll find it's exactly what you and you're friends have been seeking."

"And what do you think we've been seeking?" Asked Giles his hackles of suspicion raised again.

"What all folk want – a peaceful life." The shop keeper smiled knowingly although Giles had no idea why. "Have a nice day sir, please come again."

Giles was aware he'd been dismissed, however politely, by the owner of the shop. He decided outstaying his welcome to try and learn what the old boys game was, would only make it more difficult to find out. It could also be true of course that the old man was just a little strange with his gently condescending smiles and cryptic comments.

With a final smile of his own Giles bid the man goodbye and went to join Xander and Andrew for lunch. It would seem that Alex was wrong about the shop keeper knowing everything; either that or the man knew something he didn't want to share with him.

* * *

Willow looked up from her laptop as Buffy came through the back door.

"Dawn safely tucking into the land of the learning?" She asked.

"Uh huh. Thanks for taking her yesterday." Buffy fetched a glass and poured herself some water.

"That's okay. So how was you're trip?" Willow asked brightly.

"It was okay."

"Really, then is the face of thunder because you're back to the usual day-to-day grind or because you're missing Faith already?" Teased Willow.

"I'm not missing Faith." Buffy assured her through gritted teeth.

"Oh." The Witch's face fell. "Why not?"

Buffy didn't answer; she stood over the sink staring out across the back garden.

Willow tapped the table nervously. "I think that's good." She said at length.

"What's good?" Asked Buffy distractedly

"You with the whole not missing Faith thing. She'll be home soon so there's no need to be all pine-y. Best to look to the future and all that."

"Yeah 'cause the futures all rosy." Mutter the blonde Slayer.

"What's wrong Buffy? Did they not let you see her? Is that why you were gone all week?"

"Oh I saw her." Buffy's tone was still dejected, with a hint of anger.

"She hurt you didn't she?" Said Willow as she realised Buffy's mood for what it was. "What did she do?"

"She didn't do anything Will. She's in jail she can't do anything."

"So she said something. I knew it! She can't help herself from trying to ruin everything. Well forget her Buffy. You don't need her anyway; you can do much better than a sk…"

"Shut up." Buffy's voice cut off Willow's well meaning rant and the red-head looked hurt, but Buffy didn't turn around to see it.

"Buffy I…"

"Just leave it Willow. I don't want to hear you're opinion of Faith, I know how it goes."

"I just want to help Buffy." Willow toyed with the keys on her laptop. "It's not that I don't like Faith, I just think you could do way better."

"Maybe I can, maybe I can't." Buffy replied shortly.

"Oh Buffy of course you can, you just need to start looking. I'm sure there's plenty of women…or, or men, in Boudenver just waiting for their lives to be Buffy-enriched."

"Oh and I bet you're just dying to set me up with them. Like you did with Faith." Buffy spun around to face the Wiccan as she spoke.

Willow flinched backwards but it didn't stop her from arguing back.

"You can't blame me for that!…. even though I do." She muttered as an aside. "You and Faith were dancing in circles around each other for days before I pointed her in the direction of your hotel room. If you want someone to blame for getting hurt again, blame yourself for you're crappy taste in people, or better still do what you once told me and put the blame where it belongs. Blame Faith for being a cold-hearted bitch." Willow had stood up and the two women were facing each other over the kitchen table.

"Oh yeah, you're kind words show me just how much you like Faith." Snapped Buffy. "And me for that matter."

"You're being ridiculous Buffy." Willow snapped back. "And I'm sick of it. We're all sick of it. You've spent the last two months driving us all crazy obsessing about Faith and what for. So the first chance she gets she can break you're heart? So you've loved and lost again. So have the rest of us and we're still functioning with a full quota of common sense, so get over it already." She looked at her laptop screen. It was all blurry.

Buffy closed her mouth firmly and turned to leave the kitchen via the back door.

"Where are you going now?" The red-head called after her.

"I'm going to the training barn to train."

"The training barn is just a barn at the moment." Said Willow sarcastically, none of the barns had been renovated yet.

"Still better than being in here." Buffy spat back to her, leaving anyway.

Willow made a growling sound in exasperation and slammed the lid of her lap top down. Regretting her force immediately she rubbed its lid soothingly and softly said "Sorry" to it, her most prized possession.

* * *

The barn was pretty dark inside, and dusty, so Buffy had left the door open to let in a bit of light to see by. She didn't really need the light but it was letting in a nice fresh breeze that cooled her sticky body.

The bar set into the walls halfway up to the roof was as perfect as Giles had said it would be. Once she'd chased away the spiders and used a stick to dispose of the cobwebs it was perfect for pull ups.

She let go with one arm for a second to wipe the sweat from her brow before resuming. She wasn't bothering to keep count, what was the point when she knew she could do like a thousand of them. She got bored of the counting before she got tired from the exercise.

Figuring she must have done a couple of hundred already though, thanks to the delicious burn in her muscles, she upped her pace as she talked.

"So you see, it's just never gonna work out. She's all "I'm wicked tough and I don't need anybody to love me" and okay before you start I know that was a terrible impersonation of her, but hey it's not like I'm taking this on the stage, and I can't do that.

If I love somebody, I wanna be loved back, 'cause just what's the point otherwise. If she doesn't like me enough to admit it then I'm just wasting my time, right?" Buffy pulled her head above the bar and held herself there, the muscles on her arms sharply defined.

A pixie, about four inches high, was sitting on the bar watching her. Buffy assumed it was a girl pixie, due to the little grey cloth dress it wore. They hadn't been formally introduced yet, the pixie had just climbed up when Buffy had begun and they'd been chatting ever since. At least Buffy had been, the little one had hardly been able to squeeze a word in edgewise.

Now she cocked her head to one side and rubbed her smooth purple chin thoughtfully, before nodding and smiling. "Yas." She said.

Buffy nodded back and resumed her pull-ups. "See I don't get it. She says she wanted me from day one, loved me even. She told me she went to the Mayor because he needed her, and cared for her and loved her in a way I was never prepared to. So why is it then, that when I am prepared to give her everything she's ever wanted, she doesn't want it anymore. Y'know for someone who claims to never have had anything back home, she's certainly got the spoilt child thing down. Don't you think?"

The pixie gave a tentative "Yas."

"Exactly. So you know what? I don't think she was ever hung up on me in the first place. I think I was just a challenge, and because I didn't fall into her lap when she first wanted me to she made it her mission to make me fall for her period. I mean, she tried hard enough when I was back in high school; I was just too caught up in other, more important stuff to realise. God that must of pissed her off." Buffy chuckled drily. "That's probably the real reason she went to the Mayor. To get her own back on me 'cause I wouldn't play her silly games. Huh, and Xander thought I was over reacting when I run off to L.A., that's nothing compared to toadying to a big snake demon over a little rejection. I mean, she just rejected me and I'm not joining with the forces of darkness am I? The worst I could be accused of is rejoining the forces of lightness. All that time I was moping around over her I didn't kill a single thing, no wonder I was so frustrated and angry all the time. It's only natural that if you don't get a good Slay in for a while you're just gonna be itching to…" Buffy grimaced in disgust. "And now I'm thinking like her, as well as about her. She's taken over my life, this was her ultimate goal. She tried it by dragging me over to the dark side but I crawled back out, sanity more or less in tact. She tried it by swapping our bodies and I zapped my way back into my body with my sanity in tatters but not unfixable, but this time, a couple of weeks of forced togetherness and one night of pure, unadulterated …" Buffy stopped her workout for a minute and just hung there, her body was suddenly very warm and it wasn't because of the pull-ups. She grit her teeth to will the memories away, going down that road wouldn't help her resolve any. She began her exercise again. "…Let's just say a night with Faith would convert a nun to the pleasures of the flesh, not that a nun would be pleasuring Faith's flesh in the first place, but you know what I mean."

Buffy worked in silence for a while, the pixie watched from her seat on the bar, whenever Buffy looked up she smiled down sweetly at her and Buffy smiled back. It was good to have a friend who didn't set the standards by all her past mistakes.

"The thing is, I still don't know if I've done the right thing. Just walking away like that. I've spent all week thinking about it and I still don't know. Maybe I should have stuck to my guns and did things my way instead of her way. Maybe she needed me to show her how much I care by sticking around whether she liked it or not. Do you think I should have tried that?"

The pretty pixie had been studying her intensely and it seemed to take her a moment to realise that Buffy was waiting for an answer. Nodding her head emphatically to make up for it she gave an assertive "Yas!"

"Well that's alright for you to say." Grumbled the Slayer. "But what was the alternative: To stay and keep visiting until she just refused to see me anymore, like that would help. No I'm letting go, I'm being strong. She wants things to end here then end here they will, see how she likes that kettle of fish." Buffy began to swing backwards and forwards on the bar, when her momentum was gathering she allowed her body to arc gracefully upwards and she held herself there, toes pointing to the ceiling. "Wonder who come up with that dumb saying, who'd make fish tea in a million years." She wondered allowed.

The pixie looked up at her, smiling at the long blonde hair fluttering in the breeze above her. She playfully batted at a few strands. "Fish…Kettle…Tea." She said happily.

"Oh I get it, is it one of those sayings that mean absolutely nothing to do with the actual words that make it up, like …The cat's pyjamas or it never rains but it pours …or five by five."

The pixie looked at her blankly.

"I know it's a stupid saying." Buffy pouted, sighing in despair at ever disconnecting herself from the dark Slayer. She smiled down at the pixie. "You're really easy to talk to y'know and you've helped a lot so thanks. It's good to have someone who just listens and isn't always trying to come up with suggestions that just don't work. I'm Buffy by the way, what's you're name?" She held out a finger for the pixie to shake.

The pixie looked at the out-stretched finger then up into Buffy's upside down face, her brow wrinkled in confusion at what she was supposed to do with it. Playing safe, not wanting to offend this nice Bigger with the pretty hair, she stuck with what she knew. "Kettle…Yas?" She ventured.

* * *

The birds were singing in the trees and the sun shone brightly from above, it was in fact the perfect day for a stroll in the woods. Or in the case of Shaun and Debbie a hike across a mountain or three.

"This is beautiful, I really wish we'd just dumped the kids at you're mum's years ago and done this." Debbie was saying to her husband.

Shaun grinned. "I know what you mean, but I don't think my mum would have felt the same way."

They both laughed, their joined hands swinging loosely between them.

"Ooh look Shaun, there's a cave up there. Must be one of those the hotel man was talking about. You want to explore?"

Shaun stopped and looked up to a ledge just above their heads. Set into the side of the hill was a dark opening. Obviously leading to quite a large cave. The tour guide bloke from the hotel had told them there were hundreds of natural caves and tunnels all through the mountains in this area. Quite a few of the hotels had daily tours through sections of them. The ledge they were looking at was easily accessed by a rough steep dirt path wending in from the left.

"Okay." He agreed and together they started to scramble up the path.

Standing on the threshold they realised just how far back it must go. The sunlight only penetrated the first few feet of the gloom.

"Maybe we should have brought torches." Said Debbie, a little nervously.

"It's okay; we just won't go too far. If we come to any forks in the path we'll turn around and come back."

Chuckling the young woman nodded and they started into the dark.

After a minute or two of walking in the near absolute dark they could hear a pattering noise from further up the tunnel.

"What's that?" Debbie asked, this time the nervousness coming through loud and clear.

"Dunno, could be water dripping, a natural spring maybe."

"Ooh that would be pretty." The nerves abated a bit with that suggestion.

"Yeah, except it's so dark we wouldn't actually be able to see it." Laughed Shaun.

His laugh was cut off by a growl, a close by growl.

"Okay I may have lived my whole life in London and do not have daily contact with natural underground springs, but I know they don't sound like that."

Shaun could hear the tremor in his wife's voice and he tried to keep his own calm as he answered her.

"It's probably a bear. Let's just turn around carefully and go back the way we came."

They both did.

"Where's the way out Shaun."

The bright glow of the entrance had been behind them since they started walking, it wasn't now.

If Shaun had an answer he forgot it when the growl came again, sounding more like a roar this time, and it was closer. Shaun swung around in place looking into the total blackness, without the light to guide him he wasn't sure which direction to run in, or which direction the angry bear was coming from.

As the roar came again, echoing through the tunnel, he decided any place was better than just here and he started to run in the direction he was sure was out. He dragged Debbie along behind him.

The heavy sound of footsteps followed them and Shaun felt a harsh tug on his hand followed by an ear-piercing scream from his wife. He felt her hand tugged out of his own and called to her, but she was gone. All he could hear was the footsteps retreating, and a noise like something being dragged over the rough rock.

"Debbie…Debs…can you hear me?" Muted roaring came as his reply, quickly as he could, cursing as he stumbled over the rough path he followed the route he assumed their attacker had taken, determined to get his wife back or die trying.


	3. Act two

Buffy jogged up the sunny path heading further up the mountain side. It wasn't really a mountain so much as a gently sloping hill, but it was a big hill so the maps called it a mountain. Buffy didn't much care. It was just a nice good route for a run. Away from the house, away from her friends and away from the other Slayers. Another new girl had just arrived as Buffy was setting out. Everyone else was crowding around her doing the big welcoming committee thing so Buffy had slipped out the back.

She followed the path ever upwards, running through sunny glades and areas where dappled shadows took over as she made her way to the summit.

"Wow." She breathed when she finally reached the top.

The view was magnificent, especially for a girl born and raised in cities. She shielded her eyes from the bright sunlight and looked across the stunning vista.

Mountains, or maybe they were hills with big ideas, stretched away in front of her. She could make out lodges or cabins in the surrounding foothills. The panorama sloped downwards until relatively flat land met the dark blue surface of the lake. Despite the lack of breeze, even up on the top of the hill, she could see white crested waves catching the sun and making the surface of the water sparkle.

It looked so inviting Buffy wanted to run towards it. How better else to shake off the crappiness of the day than to bathe in those cool, refreshing waves.

"Yeah and it would probably take me a couple of days to run there, even if all the other hills are only babies compared to this one." She said aloud.

The scene looked like a painting she could reach out and touch but in reality the motor boat she could see zooming about on it looked like a toy from this distance.

Making a mental note to find the lake another day she stretched a few times to keep herself limber then set off again along the track, this time heading down the far side to where she could see some cabins nestled into the hill side. If there were cabins there must be a road, which logic would assume would take her into Boudenver. She hadn't been into Boudenver yet and exploring seemed a good way to avoid going back to the house.

* * *

Faith grabbed two trays of breakfast and handed one to the new girl trailing after her.

"If you're hungry you have to be quick. This stuff doesn't stay hot for more than five minutes and if you think it looks inedible now…" She sat down at a long bench table and the new blonde sat down the other side.

"I'm not hungry." Said the young blonde pushing her tray away from her and staring down at her shaking hands.

Faith pulled the tray towards her. "Yeah well if you don't want it, I'll have it. This place always leaves me hungry and they're about as thrilled at you asking for more as Mr Bumble."

"Huh?" Asked her confused companion.

"Oliver Twist. It's a favourite of mine. You should eat Janey, starving yourself won't enhance you're prison experience, trust me, it'll just make you feel worse. I tried it when I got in here…heh heh I lasted about two days then I was shovelling up as much of the slop as I could get my hands on."

"I'm not starving myself, I'm just not hungry. You have it if you want."

Faith eyed Janey for a moment wondering if she should push the issue, but Slayer metabolism won in the end and she dragged the sausages and hash browns onto her own plate quickly.

A hand slammed down next to her elbow that was propped on the table. The Slayer rolled her eyes and sighed. Janey jumped about a foot in the air and her trembling got worse. Faith figured even if you weren't in prison Lolitta's face could have that affect.

The Italian-American inmate was really beginning to piss Faith off. All week she and her hench women had been everywhere Faith had been. She'd received two or three beatings from them since Buffy's visit and each time Faith dropped to the floor that little bit quicker. They thought they were wearing her down and that was exactly what Faith wanted them to think. What she didn't want was this frightened kid opposite her caught up on it all.

"You stealing food offa the new fish, Wilkins. That's not good manners. Didn't your mama teach you any better?" Lolitta growled out next to Faith's ear.

Inwardly Faith flinched once at the mention of her false surname and again at the mention of her mother, but outwardly she acted like she hadn't heard and just kept shovelling hash browns and baked beans into her mouth.

"It's…its okay I said she could have it." Janey told her in a shaky voice.

"Well that's very generous of you, sugar, but Faith here knows the rules better than you do and she knows any free feeds come to us not her."

Janey looked horrified that she'd made some kind of pecking order blunder and Faith burst our laughing.

"What you laughing at Wilkins."

"The crock 'o' shit that keeps on falling out of your mouth." Faith told her, still laughing.

'Damn me and my big mouth.' She thought as she sat there face first in her breakfast. Lolitta's hand was still mashing her face into the bean juice and it was stinging the fresh cut on her lip. Aware of inmates and guards all watching this she kept her temper with great difficulty. The second the pressure was released on the back of her head she scraped her chair back with enough force to push Lol off balance a little. Standing she wiped her face with her sleeve, orange sauce mingled with red blood.

A guard was approaching them as the two women stared at each other. "What's going on?" He barked, even though he must have seen the whole thing.

"Who the hell is she sleepin' with?" Faith wondered.

"Seems Faith spilt some beans down her chin. You should let her have a bib." Lolitta said with a ninety watt smile.

"Wilkins?" The guard turned to her.

"Messy, messy me." She told the guard sarcastically. "I should go get cleaned up." Faith stalked off back to her cell.

Janey got up to rush after her. Lolitta moved quick and got a hand on her shoulder before she could get very far.

"If you know what's good for you Blondie, you'll stay away from that one as much as you can. She's bad news, if you know what I mean. You'd be better off sticking with us. We'll watch you're back, she'll only get you stabbed in it." Her smile turned dangerous. "Trust me on this."

Janey grabbed the larger women's hand and wrenched it off of her shoulder and squeezed it. Lolitta grunted in pain and pulled her hand away, Janey let her. For a minute there she lost the scared little girl expression she'd been wearing for what seemed like forever, but now it came back. She hurried back to the cell after Faith before anyone else could say anything.

* * *

The cabins turned out to be a hotel of sorts, with a separate restaurant and tennis courts around the back. Out the front was a police jeep with a flashing blue light, parked next to it was another jeep with the words Animal Control emblazoned on the side. People were milling about aimlessly.

Buffy slowed to a casual walk just before reaching the small crowd, she came to a stop by a pair of middle-aged women dressed in hiking gear, and they were talking quite loudly to one another. Buffy felt it would be rude not to listen.

The woman wearing the royal blue wet weather jacket was saying: "Well if they don't catch it soon, they never will. All this noise going on it'll want to be as far away as possible, but then who's to say it won't come back and strike again when it all calms down."

Her companion wore a thick green sweater despite the heat of the day. "Well if they don't find it by nightfall then I think we should curtail this part of our trip and move on to Cleveland. I won't sleep at night knowing some savage killer is roaming around."

"I agree." Said Royal blue coat. "Let's go out to the veranda, I need a stiff drink after that."

The two women left the crowd and Buffy drifted closer to where the track disappeared back into the trees. A young man dressed as a waiter was speaking to an older man with wild grey hair and a wild grey beard to match. Buffy listened.

"Well it's not good for business, I can tell you that now. Mr Alfonze is going to hit the roof if all our guests up and leave." Said the young man.

"Well Simon it's not like I can do a lot about it. Animals attack where they want to attack. That's the way it is, but we got this situation under control and we'll have it all cleared up and forgotten before any of your guests get a chance to leave." The older man assured him.

"I know Animal attacks happen. I've lived here my whole life and I've seen what a momma bear will do if you look wrong at her cubs and I heard what happened to the Thomas's boy when he got to close to that wolf, but this couple were ripped apart. What animal around here would do that? Rip a couple apart and just leave them there. No animal I know of." The waiter seemed pretty shaken up.

"I'm not sure." The older man admitted. "But that's why we got animal control here, they know about this stuff. Maybe it was something rabid. That'd do it."

Buffy had heard enough. As casually as she could she started to walk down the track past the talking men. Before she could get any further the older man put out a hand to stop her. For the first time she noticed the sheriff badge stuck to his shirt.

"Sorry Miss, you can't go that way today."

"Oh, okay sorry, uh why?"

"We've had a bit of trouble with some of the local wildlife. Nothing to worry yourself about. It'll all be sorted out in due course and you can carry on you're holiday like nothing happened." The sheriff explained, mistaking Buffy for a guest.

"What was it? What type of animal I mean?" Buffy asked politely.

The sheriff hesitated. "We think, that is the animal control experts believe that it must have been a bear."

"Gosh and it hurt someone?" Buffy played the tourist to the hilt.

"Killed someone more like, two someone's." Said Simon the waiter.

The sheriff turned on him in exasperation. "Do you want all of Mr Alfonze's guests to go home?"

"No, but you didn't know them Sheriff. Shaun and Debbie were good people and they come all the way from England to holiday with us and this happens to them. They got kids at home too, three of them they showed me the pictures just this morning." Simon let out a little sob and dashed back in the direction of the hotel.

The Sheriff looked a little embarrassed at the young man's outburst. "Uh maybe you should be getting back yourself Miss. There's really no more to see here."

Buffy nodded and started back up the track. 'No not here.' She thought. 'But maybe somewhere else.'

She waited until she was around the bend once more and out of sight of the crowd before she ducked into the shadow of the trees. She moved as quickly and as quietly as she could, wincing at the crackling of branches beneath her feet, but it didn't take her long before she could hear voices in front. She eased carefully around a large bush and could easily make out the blue and white jacket with 'Sheriff Department' on the back. The man wearing it was stood with his back to her while two other men in green uniforms were talking to him. She guessed they were animal control.

Leaping high she caught the lowest branch of the tree above her and pulled herself up. From there she crawled along towards the end before reaching up and grabbing the sturdy limb of a different tree slightly higher. She continued like this until she was about twelve feet off the ground but only a few feet from the forests edge. She made herself as small as possible on the branch while she listened.

The large man in the police coat was talking. "They were dragged here, and I'm guessing it was from the caves. There's a blood trail to suggest it, but why would an animal go to that much trouble. Why not kill and eat or kill and leave."

From her current vantage point Buffy could now see two mangled corpses lying side by side by the edge of the track.

"Maybe it was dragging them back to its den, that could explain it." One of the animal guys said.

"What both bodies?" Asked the cop.

The other animal guy was holding a handkerchief over his nose and his skin looked pale and waxy. His voice came out slightly muffled. "It could have been a pack of something."

"Something's not making sense. When was the last time we had packs of wolves attacking?" Asked the cop.

"Last week Alex." The first man in green said simply.

"Okay, attacking tourists in daytime then?" The cop rubbed his messy thatch of hair and looked over at the two chewed bodies. "I'll get forensics to see if any of the blood isn't there own."

Animal guy number two pulled the hanky away; he was getting a bit of colour back in his cheeks now. "Good let us know what we're looking for, meanwhile we'll check the area, but if whatever it is, is in the caves I don't know how much luck we might have."

"You know how far those tunnels go." His colleague agreed.

Sirens could be heard approaching, nearly causing Buffy to fall of her branch.

"About damn time." The tall cop moved over to the bodies. "Let's get these poor bastards out of here.

Buffy crawled away across the branches not dropping to the ground until she was far enough away to not be seen.

* * *

Second day nerves were worse than first day nerves Dawn decided. All the people you had met the day before had had time to formulate their opinions. She bet half the girls that had seemed so friendly yesterday, had spent the better part of last night bitching her out on the phone. With a deep breath and a nervous smile she opened the door to her homeroom and got ready to face whatever was thrown at her.

It turned out to be a fuzzy yellow football.

She dropped her bag when her arms instinctively flew up to catch it before it hit her on the nose, then she looked around to see who had it in for her already.

Three guys were stood on the far side of the room; she vaguely recognised them from the day before. Two of them were sniggering openly while the third was turning red as she watched.

"Nice catch." One of the sniggerers called across the general hub-bub of the teacher less room.

"Sorry." Said the red guy with an apologetic grimace.

"S'okay." She smiled and chucked it inexpertly back.

Gathering up her bag she made to sit in the same seat as the day before, just as the teacher strolled in.

Dawn had already decided Mr Roberts was a hottie, even if he was kind of old. As he went to his desk now the rest of the class automatically settled into they're seats with minimal fuss. That kind of respect for a teacher was rare, Dawn knew.

Halfway through role-call Sethos sauntered in, gave Mr Roberts a nod and went to lounge in his seat.

"I'm glad you can join us Seth." Mr Roberts' tone was light enough. "Do you want to share with me the reason for your tardiness?"

"I was doing my hair." The young man replied without a hint of sarcasm.

Titters spread through the classroom. Dawn turned in her seat to look at his hair. It was short, cut close to his dark skin. It looked good but she couldn't see how he had to do more than possibly run a handful of wax or gel over his head in the mornings.

"Is that supposed to be amusing?" Mr Roberts didn't smile.

"No." Sethos answered, impassive. His fingernails scraped the desk top leisurely.

The teacher glared at him. "You were late your first day and you're late again today. Maybe detention this afternoon will make you think twice about being late tomorrow. I'll get the office to inform your parents. This goes for everyone; I expect punctuality unless you have a damn good reason otherwise. If I can make it here on time so can you."

Sethos just nodded looking bored and Mr Roberts went back to roll-call.

Dawn smirked and shook her head. 'God, he thinks he's such a bad boy. What a dork!' She thought.

After homeroom Dawn hurried off to her locker and spotted a familiar face from the day before.

"Fen hi, why weren't you in homeroom?" She asked the tall blonde girl she'd sat with in most of her classes and for lunch.

"Hey Sunny Summers." Said the blonde in greeting as she slammed her own locker shut. "Dentist." She winked. Off of Dawn's look of disbelief she added. "Hey I got a note."

"Who from?" Grinned Dawn.

"Our maid, but who's to know. She's been to more parents/teacher evenings than my mom has. So what did I miss?"

Dawn finished in her locker and they started down the hall to their first class.

"Other than saying yes to your name, not a lot."

"Well they can't flunk me for that, can they?" The buckles on the Fen's leather jacket jangled as they hurried.

Dawn thought that maybe attendance did have something to do with it, but she didn't want to look like a total geek in front of her new cool friend, so she said: "Guess not. Ooh Mr Roberts and Sethos had words." She went into gossip mode.

"Sethos is so cute." Said Fen as they entered their classroom.

"Oh he so is not." Shrieked back Dawn.

* * *

After the manly lunch of burger and fries at 'The Mouth' in town Giles, Xander and Andrew were in the largest of the barns preparing to turn it into a dormitory for the new Slayers, the house was already overcrowded and they were finding more every day.

Xander was measuring out wood, going over plans and overseeing the lesser experienced. Giles had offered to cut the actual wood as he was worried Xander would lose a thumb, it was a private concern he hadn't mentioned to the one-eyed man, but Xander had seemed quite happy to load the more manual jobs onto him and Andrew while he concentrated on the designing. Andrew was in charge of nailing up the new support beams into the old timber of the roof.

Over the past week Alison, Miranda and Cici had been washing down the insides of the walls and then whitewashing them. Despite many grumbles about the girls having to do all the hard work and lame karate kid jokes they'd got it done and looking respectable, ready for the men to take over.

"Ow!" Andrew hit his thumb and dropped the hammer again, having to come down the ladder and retrieve it. "I don't know why I have to work up here and you two get to work down there." He grumbled.

"Because the only time I'm letting you have control of anything sharp and damaging is in the middle of the apocalypse, and then it's with a heavy heart." Xander told him, handing him up another length of planking before walking back to grab his beer and go over the measurements again.

"What if the ladder falls? It's not like anyone's holding it." The blonde whined.

"Then obviously you'll fall with it. Giles, I've marked up the next sixth lengths and that should be enough to finish the roofing, but we can't get any of that up until the rest of the beams are in, which is taking so cotton-pickin' long." He shot a glance at Andrew. "So what's say we start the partitions next?"

"Whatever you think." Giles answered over the reverberating saw.

"If we can get one of the girl's in here to hold the ladder then I'd be able to let go of the wall and hammer faster." Tried Andrew.

Xander looked shocked. "You mean let a woman come into our barn of manly, testosterone-y, belching, scratching-in-personal-places bonding." He looked up as a shadow fell across the doorway. "Buffy hi. Come on in."

Giles put down his saw and drew closer to the door to give her a hug. "Buffy, hello. How was you're trip."

She pulled back aware of how sweaty she was and how dusty he was. "I found demons. Or at least I found their empty take-out cartons." She told him brightly.

"In L.A.?" Asked the Watcher.

"Nope. Guess again."

"On the aeroplane?" He asked horrified.

Buffy rolled her eyes and looked around at what they had accomplished in the barn.

Xander used a stubby pencil to mark a line on a long piece of wood before letting his tape measure zip back in. "I think she means here, big guy, on the happy, happy Hellmouth."

"Oh of course." Said Giles catching on.

"And what did they fancy for dinner Buff, Chinese babies, Italian babies, perhaps something spicier." He took another pull on his beer before picking up some more wood.

Buffy picked up a spirit level and started to fiddle. "None of the above. Adults, English."

"That's nice." Said Giles with a homesick smile.

Buffy and Xander both turned to look at him. "Huh?" Was said in unison.

"Well not now they are dead obviously." Spluttered Giles. "I assume they are dead?"

"From what I could tell dead is an understatement. I couldn't get that close, I was pulling a Tarzan in the woods, but from what I could see they had been shredded and then sucked dry of all their tasty goodness. One of them didn't have a head." Buffy turned the spirit level first one way and then the other watching the little bubble inside.

Xander wondered why he felt sick just at the description where as Buffy really could have been discussing the remains of her egg-choo-yung.

"Well I guess this calls for research." Said Giles. "Was there any other sign of demonic activity that would help us pin-point what we are looking for?"

"Nope just a blood trail. I can follow it later tonight if you want." Buffy offered.

"Yes okay, you can take the girls with you. Give Kennedy a break."

"No thanks Giles, I'm not really social girl at the moment and besides it'll be quicker on my own."

Giles looked at her with something between concern and annoyance, his usual look for her. Xander could see he was itching to say something but the older man bit his tongue, instead saying:

"Well I'd better get started on the research then, check for more reports of animal attacks." Giles started to leave the barn but Xander stopped him.

"Oh no you don't. I'm measuring guy, you're cutting guy and Andrew's hitting his thumb with the hammer guy. If you want to get this finished before any more girls arrive and avoid a return to the dark days of six in a bedroom, then you can't break up the team."

Giles pondered this for a minute, clearly eager to get away. He sighed. "Kate has just arrived; Vi should be joining us next week. I suppose you're right." He turned to pick up the saw again. It wasn't there. Puzzled he looked around for it.

"It's alright Giles, I'll get Willow and the others on the case, see what we can dig up. Although I'm pretty sure it's just another dopey demon stupid enough to wander onto the Slayer's patch.

"Ow! Buffy can you hold the ladder for me?" Came a whine from the rafters.

Buffy gave a derisive laugh. "No." She tilted the spirit level again. "Y'know they should put little women in the bubble that get naked when something's not level. It would make carpentry much more appealing." Giles gave her a look. "Okay I'm going." She sighed chucking the tool to him.

* * *

Faith dried off her face then dealt with the dribbles that had gotten on her shirt. After a minute she was satisfied she couldn't make it any better and she turned to where Janey was hovering in the doorway.

"I can clean my own face, you didn't have to come running after me like that." She told the new girl slightly annoyed.

"I…I didn't. I…I just didn't want to …"

"Be to close to the stink rising from Lol. Yeah, I can relate." Smirking, Faith threw her towel onto her bunk and started to comb through her damp hair.

"She's not too nice, is she?" Said Janey, quietly.

Faith shrugged. "She's as sweet as cherry pie if you do what she tells ya."

"But you don't of course." The blonde managed a little smile.

"Got it in one kid. The only master I got; is me." Faith laughed at herself, she hadn't been her own master since becoming a Slayer and if she had just accepted that instead of trying to fight it all the time she probably wouldn't be where she was now. "You don't want to mess with her though. I'm not saying do what she wants, but just be careful. You're only a little thing and if you piss her off she'll eat you for breakfast."

Janey looked very interested in that. "Is she really strong then, like super strong."

Faith laughed again. "Nah she's just regular strong, but that's still more than you want to mess with, believe me."

Janey sat thinking about what Faith had said. Faith sat there on the edge of her bunk not really thinking about anything, she wasn't in any hurry to go back on the wing.

A woman appeared in the doorway. "Faith, mail for you." She handed the Slayer two letters and disappeared.

Faith looked them over carefully. Two letters in one day. She hadn't a single letter since she'd been back and now two. Cool. She checked the post marks for a clue to the senders. One was from Los Angeles, this was the bigger and the heavier of the two, she laid it down carefully beside her. The other was a small slim envelope which barely weighed a thing. It was from Cleveland.

Her heart started its usual double beat rhythm it did whenever she was close to anything that had been close to Buffy. These days that counted as the whole state of Ohio. She placed the small envelope down on the other side of her. Buffy wouldn't write would she, not after the way things had been left. Actually Buffy probably would write, but the contents were uncertain. Was she writing to tell her she still loved her, or was she writing to tell her she hated her all over again?

With shaking hands she picked the letter back up and just held it.

* * *

Buffy flicked idly through the book of demon lore; one of the several shipped from Giles' home in England. She could see no point in actually reading it considering she hadn't seen the demon, but by pretending, she could avoid looking at anyone else and joining in any of the conversations.

Willow at the other end of the table was so intent on her research that she too was ignoring everyone else. As she zipped through pages on the net her face grew increasingly concentrated until an all out frown was visible.

Kennedy stopped chatting to Kate the new Slayer when she noticed Buffy's pensive flicking, spotting that the blonde's eyes weren't even focused on the pages but on the table top beside the book.

Her girlfriend's thumb was in danger of breaking right off with the speed it was using the mouse ball, or whatever fancy name it had. Willow had mentioned that they'd had words before. She'd made out like it was no big deal, but looking at the two of them now she wasn't convinced.

Standing, the small brunette went behind Willow's chair and massaged her shoulders gently.

"Mmm nice." Coo'd the red-head without taking her eyes of the screen.

Buffy looked up, twitched her lips a little in disapproval, and looked back to the text in front of her.

Kennedy peered over her girlfriends shoulder to see how she was progressing with the research. What she saw confused her.

"Will, Am I missing something. Since when did Tibetan Monasteries have anything to do with our demons?"

"Um." Said Willow. Buffy looked up.

"Actually when did Tibetan monks start building websites?" Kennedy asked with a light chuckle.

"You'd be surprised." The new girl said. "There are loads of demons referred to in Buddhist texts. There's the Yakshas which are generally good demons although if you need something from them they'll give you a riddle and if they don't like your answer, they can be a bit uppity." Kate's soft Irish lilt was excited and confident as she pushed her short brown hair behind her ears, obviously getting into it. "Then you've got your Rakshasas, they're the really nasty ones. They feed on human flesh and they're like …The Anti-gods or something, then you've got the Kumbhandas that feed on the human spirit, they should be pretty easy to spot though considering they've got human bodies and horse heads. Kishimojin is a bit of a puzzler, she's known as the 'Mother of the demon children' but she's not evil anymore, She used to eat babies but Buddha showed her the error of her ways and she protects them instead or …" Kate realised everyone was staring at her and trailed off. "Is that okay?"

Buffy stopped staring at Kate, who she hadn't really noticed before, and smiled at Willow. "Obviously one of your team Will."

Willow turned her rapt attention from the newcomer to frown at Buffy. "What do you mean "my" team? Like you're not dying to be on it yourself. Short …"

"What? I think I've done my bit for the team. Short what?" Asked Buffy caught between confusion and irritation at Willow's attack.

"What, you call a couple of months of having sexy thoughts about Faith; you're stint for the "team"…"

"Sexy thoughts…whoa there missy. Firstly I'm not having any sexy thoughts about Faith, mutilating ones possibly, secondly …"

"…Shoulda known you'd get scared and jump straight back over the other side of the fence…"

"…What the hell …"

"…There's plenty more women out there, just 'cause Faith's a waste of space…"

"…Are you talking about?" Buffy's voice rose as she finished.

Willow stopped her babble and blinked at the shouting Slayer. "What?"

"What are you talking about Will? Why are you bringing up personal stuff at a research meeting?"

Willow looked dejected. "I thought you were. You were, weren't you, you know with all the "which team are you playing for" stuff." Seeing Buffy's blank look Willow ducked her head a little bit. "You weren't." She surmised.

"No Willow, I was declaring Kate fit to be enrolled in Team: Research meaning she could tread in your hallowed footprints as she's obviously got the smarts for it." Buffy stood up. "But thanks for airing my sexy thoughts in public, you've been a great help." She finished sarcastically, and left through the back door.

Kennedy dropped a small kiss on the top of Willow's head and resumed her massage. Willow's eyes turned back to the screen.

Kate gulped, unsure how she had just caused the little explosion between the witch and the elder Slayer, but feeling responsible never-the-less.

"So how do you know so much about Tibetan demons?" Asked Kennedy, breaking the tense silence, but not the tension itself.

"I always liked stories about them; I guess a lot of it stuck in my brain. I'm not sure I would have been so keen had I known they were real, though." Said Kate.

Willow kept her head down as she worked through the web pages. Not everyone who went to the monastery near Ngari for help had a mention on the page she'd found but the one she was looking for was there, there was even a picture too. He was standing there with that cryptic smile of his surrounded by bald headed monks in orange robes all about the same height as he. She smiled fondly at the picture and stroked it with a finger tip. Feeling the pressure change on her shoulders, she clicked onto something else. The page hadn't told her anymore than she'd already found out anyway. She would find what she was looking for though, or her name wasn't Net-Girl.

* * *

Giles was still looking around the barn, lifting up pieces of wood and pieces of paper covered with Xander's scruffy handwriting and neat little diagrams, but he couldn't find the tool anywhere.

"Damn and blast it. I only put it down a moment ago. What the devil has happened to it?"

"Giles is this your way of telling me you've lost my best saw, hang on let me rephrase that, my only saw?" Asked Xander.

"Not lost, mislaid." He assured the carpenter, still looking around wildly. "Andrew have you taken the saw?"

Andrew's voice floated down to them. "Mr Giles you know I'm not allowed to touch the saw, ever since…" He held up his left hand which sported a white bandage below his little finger.

"It's like the bloody thing grew legs of its own."

* * *

Buffy was sitting behind the barns in the sun, brooding. All she wanted to do was bury her head in Willow's neck and cry her heart out, but her best friend was being mean. Okay so she hadn't exactly opened up this morning, but it was the best friend's job to pry it out of her when she wasn't feeling forth-coming. All the red-head had done was snap at her and said nasty things. Just because she had a girlfriend who loved her and gave her massages and was actually here, she didn't want to know about her.

She picked a daisy and turned it around and around in her fingers. She plucked at one of the petals and the rhyme echoed inside her head.

"I'm not doing it. A flower can't calculate the intricacies of the human heart, it's just a gimmick to get us to pick you and spread your seed far and wide." She told the little flower firmly. "And if I'm not getting any, neither are you."

The grass moved by her right foot and she tensed. It stopped its rustle for a heart beat, and then parted to reveal a pixie, Buffy was pretty sure it was the same one as before.

"Hey, you're back then. Take a seat. You still can't understand a word I'm saying can you, and yet I just keep on talking." She greeted the little purple being, glad for the distraction.

The pixie regarded her for a second before responding. "Purty Biggaar, yow look sor bye." Seeing Buffy's blank look, the little pixie thought hard then said "Sor …saad."

"You mean sad. I am a bit." Buffy admitted.

The pixie nodded and continued. "Iy haave a giff…" She disappeared back into the grass and came back dragging a saw behind her. "Ahh giff frum Elowen." She pointed a tiny little thumb at her chest.

Buffy accepted the saw, smiling slightly. "So you're Elowen?"

The pixie repeated the gesture with her thumb and repeated the name. "Elowen. Care-ee iss shap."

Buffy looked confused and so Elowen mimed cutting herself on the saw, then shook her hand in the air as if she'd hurt it. She smiled at the little creatures antics.

Seeing Buffy smile seemed to please Elowen and she smiled big herself, a teeny set of very white teeth contrasted starkly with the mauve of her face and the indigo of her eyes.

The blonde Slayer held the saw carefully as instructed. "Thank you Elowen."

The pixie beamed almost blinding her with the white white teeth, then darted away back into the grass. Buffy turned the cutting implement over in her hands a few times; it was shiny and new, catching the sun as she turned it.

"Guess I could always cut my head off with it." She groaned, flopping onto her back to stare at the clouds.

* * *

Giles had given up looking for the saw and was sitting instead on the wooden saw horse in the centre of the barn, drinking one of the obligatory bonding beers. As much as he had protested when it was offered that he would much prefer a cup of tea, he had to admit the icy brew was going down a treat.

He set his bottle carefully by his feet and stood up to pull his handkerchief from his jeans pocket. The temperature outside was about seventy, not particularly hot compared to the summers he'd suffered through in L.A., but inside the barn with no breeze and no windows, and only the door open to allow any relief, it felt like at least one hundred degrees.

"Xander, we must put some windows in, not just for light and ventilation, but for safety as well. We can't have only one way in and out if we hope to put twenty girls in here." Giles mopped at his sweat-covered neck as he spoke.

Xander was leaning over a makeshift table he had set up, writing numbers and measurements onto his diagrams. "I'm on it G-man. Two windows, one on both walls at the far end." He pointed down the barn away from the door. "Just give me a minute." He made some more marks on the paper.

Giles removed his glasses and put them down on the saw horse, while he wiped his face dry.

"Here you go. Come and have a look at this."

"Just a moment." Giles placed his handkerchief back in his pocket and reached down for his glasses. His fingers didn't immediately close around them like he was expecting. Turning in the direction his hand was groping he couldn't see them anywhere. He checked around under the sawhorse. Nothing.

"What in the seven hells is going on?" He asked in confusion.

* * *

Buffy was still lying on her back, her hands were pillowing her head and her ankles were crossed. Her eyes were closed against the brightness of the sun. The saw was discarded to her left side. The grass rustled.

Buffy opened one eye. "I know you're there."

The pixie, Elowen, seemed to take this as hello, for she pushed her way out of the long grass strands and boldly climbed onto Buffy's flat stomach. She smiled at the Slayer.

"Hi again." Greeted Buffy, regarding the forward display of the pixie. "Y'know, I don't usually let people sit on my tummy until at least the third date." She sighed and closed her eyes again. "Not that I really remember what a third date is." She added.

Elowen ignored all of this, mostly because she didn't understand a word of it, but also because she was excited to be bringing the bigger another present, she'd seemed so happy with the first one. She leaned a little to the side and dragged a pair of glasses off of the grass where she'd hidden them.

Buffy accepted them absentmindedly. "For me, you shouldn't have." She said wryly. She leaned up on one elbow, careful not to dislodge the little pixie as she did so, and inspected the glasses more closely. "Oh, you really shouldn't have. Giles is gonna kill me." She put the glasses on and Elowen burst into a high tinkle-y giggle, it was cute. Blinking, she tore the glasses off of her nose and waved them around. "These things could seriously damage your eyesight." She was still blinking to clear the affect of the strong lenses. Elowen collapsed on her tummy, giggling uncontrollably.

Buffy smiled fondly at her, despite her current bad mood, she just couldn't help not. "Did anyone ever tell you how cute you are?"

She could hear a car engine coming and she turned her head to catch a glimpse of a big jeep coming up the driveway.

"I wonder who that is." She turned to look questionably at Elowen, but the pixie had vanished, not even a movement in the grass to show where she was. "Not in the company mood, huh? I know how you feel."

She sat up more fully when she heard a car door slam and Xander calling out a greeting.

* * *

School was finally out for the day and it hadn't gone too badly, Dawn decided. She and Fen were rapidly becoming good friends even though they'd barely know each other for more than thirty-six hours. The rest of the students seemed nice enough. Xander had been right about Sunnydale being big news, everyone wanted to know what the "Earthquake" was like.

It was getting on her nerves having to tell the fabricated version of the story all the time. Here was her chance to really shine, really be a hero in the eyes of her fellow student body. She'd faced the First Evil and won, that was way cooler than a common old earthquake, but she had to be content with telling the story that had been in the newspapers over and over.

She perched now on the wall that ran around the front of school, loosened her shirt from her pants and let it hang down, allowing a little breeze to reach her skin. It was warm sat in the sun, but someone should be along to pick her up soon.

She stopped looking at the road to see if anything was coming, because nothing was, and turned her attention back towards the school. Some students were still leaving, but it was mostly deserted now out the front. There were some after school activities just starting; Dawn could hear a trumpet being practised somewhere. Fen had gone to a metal work class and wouldn't be finished for another hour.

As she watched, Sethos came strolling out of one of the side doors. He was in so much trouble now. Dawn called to him as he passed near her.

"Hey Seth, aren't you supposed to be in detention?"

He stopped and turned to her. "What if I am?"

"Hey, doesn't mean anything to me if you don't want to go. I just thought maybe you'd forgotten." She answered, a little annoyed by his harsh tone.

"I'm not going to sit in an empty classroom with him, and if you've got any sense, neither will you." He told her ominously, before walking off.

"Okay that boy is just plain weird." She said to herself as he disappeared up the road.

She lay back on the wall and closed her eyes, revelling in the warmth of the sun on her face. Twenty minutes went by before she was disturbed.

"Hey, Dawn, what are you still doing here?"

She opened her eyes to see Mr. Roberts looming over her.

"Oh, I guess I must have dozed off. I'm just waiting for someone to pick me up. They must be running late." Dawn sat up quickly, embarrassed to be caught napping on the wall by her good-looking teacher.

"Well maybe I should give them detention." He said smiling down at her. "Which is actually why I came over. Seth decided not to join me for our detention this afternoon. I know you have a few classes with him; I wondered if you knew where he was?"

Dawn looked guilty, even though she had no idea why, it wasn't her fault Sethos was such a loser and couldn't make it to school on time, and it wasn't her fault he didn't like Mr Roberts, but now she was stuck in an awkward situation where she either had to lie to her teacher or snitch on a fellow student.

She struggled internally with the decision and Mr. Roberts, seeming to sense this, let her down easy. "It's okay Dawn, there's no reason you would have seen him, I don't think the boy has any friends yet to confide in about skipping detention. I'll just catch up with him tomorrow. Is there something I can do for you though? School finished nearly thirty minutes ago, do you want to come inside and call your parents?"

"Actually it's my sister who'll be picking me up, or possibly a friend, I'm not sure. I have my cell phone though I can ring them from here." She suddenly realised. Pulling the phone from her bag she flipped it open and groaned when she realised the battery was dead.

"I guess you need to use that phone after all." Said the teacher with a smile.

Dawn gave an embarrassed smile back. "If that's okay? I'm sure they're on their way but it will be nice to make sure."

"Of course it's okay. Come on." He led the way inside. Taking her to an office just down from the teacher's staff room. It was a small office with just two desks in it and a phone. "There you go." He pointed to the phone, before quietly shutting the door behind him and leaning against it.

Dawn crossed the room to the phone, picked it up and dialled quickly, smiling at the teacher as she did so. He returned the smile as he met her eyes, but then his own strayed and slid down from her face, down the front of her un-tucked shirt, down her tight, black pants and then up again to her eyes. It all happened so fast Dawn was pretty sure she'd imagined it. Her own smile faltered a little as the phone just kept ringing and ringing.

"No one home." The sound of the teacher's voice made her jump and she looked back at him to see his eyes sparkling and a small unreadable smile playing on his lips.

"Uh no, at least it doesn't seem like it. I guess I'll go and wait outside again." She moved towards the door, but he didn't move.

"Are you sure, because if you want you can wait in here with me and try again in a few minutes."

Sethos' warning came back to her, suddenly holding a lot more weight than it had earlier. "Um, no that's all right, I'd rather wait outside." She tried to step around him to open the door, but he didn't budge.

"I really think it would be better if you stay here Dawn. For one it's not safe for a pretty girl like you to be out there alone." This time she was not mistaken, his gaze definitely dropped from her face to her chest, lingering there only a second before meeting her eyes again. She shivered. "And two, you're not really supposed to be on school property after hours unless you've got business to be here for. I wouldn't want you to get in trouble." He cocked his head to one side; his smile looked sneaky and menacing from that angle. "So why don't you stay in here with me to avoid any of that …unpleasantness."


	4. Act three

Dawn's eyes darted around her looking for an alternative way of escape. She couldn't believe this was happening. Surely there was some mistake. He wasn't really going to try something was he? Not at school, in broad daylight, with other teachers and students around. He wouldn't. Even if he was some sicko who got his jollies from messing with his students, he wouldn't be dumb enough to try it on her would he. After all she was a fearless hero.

'If I'm such a fearless hero, why don't I bash him over the head and get out of here.' She thought as she stood there trying to hide her trembling.

"Uh sir, Mr Roberts. I really think I should wait out by the road in case my sister turns up and doesn't know where I am." Dawn tried for polite reasoning.

The teacher's smile grew. "I suppose if your sister couldn't find you she'd probably assume you'd walked home. Which would be a really stupid thing to do, what with all the strange things that go on in this town. You may not even make it home alive."

If he would just walk towards her, away from the door, she could chuck her bag at him and make it out into the hall, but he wasn't budging.

"Okay. What do you want?" She asked defiantly. Annoyance hid the fear she was feeling, or so she hoped.

"Want?" He smirked.

"Yeah, what's your angle? If you just wanted to eat me, I'm thinking you would have done it by now." She said a lot more confidently than she felt. "So what, am I gonna be a sacrifice? Do you want to use me to raise your High Lord Whatsisface? Am I the bait to lure Buffy out, is that it?"

"Who's Buffy?" Mr Roberts asked, both amused and confused by her little outburst.

"Oh like you don't know who she is. She's a Slayer."

"What's a Slayer, some kind of Thrash-Metal thing? I don't know, the stuff you kids listen to, today." Mr Roberts folded his arms across his chest, looking like he was happy to relax while the young woman kept talking.

"You really don't know what a Slayer is? Boy, you demons really are backward here. So come on, I haven't got all day, let's get this started. Get your demon badness on so I can get to the being rescued part before I fall asleep from boredom."

"You know, I don't know if you are just completely crazy or if this is some elaborate attempt at getting me so confused I let you walk out of here before I've finished." He leapt forward; she squealed as he grabbed her by her upper arms and pushed her hard against the desk. "Let me make one thing clear, I am going to finish." He held her in place with a firm grip and looked between them at her shaking body. "You really are a delectable young thing Miss Summers, what was that you were saying about me wanting to eat you?" He moved one hand to her neck, stroking her there almost gently.

Dawn clenched her fists and shut her eyes as tightly as she could, trying not to think about the hot breath in her face, it smelled minty fresh, not usual for your average demon. "Please, please let me go. I'm sorry; I'll do whatever you want. Just please don't hurt me." Dawn whimpered, sniffing a little.

"There, there Dawn don't cry, I don't want to hurt you unless I have to. This is about pleasure not pain."

"What do you want me to do?" She asked in a small voice she barely recognised.

Mr Roberts licked his lips and eased the pressure on her arm and neck, stepping back just slightly to give her the room to do what he wanted. "Just take your pants off." He told her, his breathing growing heavy in anticipation.

"O…okay. Just let me get my …" She kept up the tiny voice even as she brought up her right knee, smashing it directly into the sensitive area between the creep's legs. "…Shoes off. Oh sorry did that hurt." His hands went to the area where she'd hit him and he leaned forward slightly, his eyes and mouth making surprised 'o's. She picked a heavy hard-backed book off of the desk she was pushed against and bashed the teacher over the head with it while he was still stunned.

"You bastard." She shouted at him as she hit him again. "You shouldn't be a teacher. I'm gonna get you so fired." She started to turn back towards the door.

Mr Roberts turned to look at her, still in a pain induced crouch. "It's your word against mine you little bitch, and I'm a long standing member of staff here at McKinley high. Where as you, are a little nothing, who's still traumatised after her recent ordeal in California." He wheezed. She stood with her hand on the door knob listening to him. "Tell who you want, no one will believe you, and I will make this afternoon seem like a picnic once I'm done with you. They'll be finding bits of your body in all fifty states."

Dawn wrenched open the door and ran into the corridor, looked both ways, saw no one and ran towards the main exit. At the door she risked a glance behind her, no one was following. She left the school and walked back out to the road.

"Come on Buffy, where are you?" She was still shaking slightly, but it felt better to be out it the open again. She kept glancing anxiously over her shoulder which is why she jumped when a big black car pulled up in front of her and the electric window slid down.

"Hey Dawn, you look like you seen a ghost." Fen poked her head out of the back portion of the long car.

"Oh God am I glad to see you. You will never guess what just happened to me." She told her friend shakily.

Fen noticed the fear still shining in her friend's eyes. "What is it?" She asked, getting out of the car and coming to stand in front of her.

Dawn looked over her shoulder again. "It's…it's…I don't know. He seemed so nice, and he's handsome and funny and I always thought it was supposed to be the total losers who were slime bags."

Fen looked at her worriedly, not understanding where Dawn was coming from but realising whatever it was, it must be pretty serious to freak her new friend out like this. She gently took hold of Dawn's arm and steered her towards the car.

"Come on. We can give you a lift home."

Dawn smiled gratefully and slid into the back of the car next to her friend.

* * *

Alex looked around the dimly lit barn admiring the changes already made.

"So this is what you do, or did before … I mean, this is your …craft."

Xander rubbed at his elastic. "Oh yeah, me and the wood are good friends. Me and the saw not so much anymore. That's why I got me some lackey's."

"I am not and never will be your lackey, Xander." Said Giles irritable at still not being able to find his glasses. He turned his harried expression to the deputy. "What can we do for you, Officer?"

"Whoa, Mr Giles, I'm not here in a professional capacity so Alex is fine."

"Yeah Giles, so unclench from the British stick already." Xander grinned at him before asking Alex, "I'm just gonna grab another beer, you want one?"

"Uh yeah, a beer would be good." Alex shifted his attention when a young blonde man fell off a ladder on the other side of the barn.

"Ow! That hurt!"

"Andrew what on earth are you doing?" Asked Giles.

"I heard company I wanted to come down and say hi, but I slipped." Andrew explained as he stood up, looking at a little graze on his elbow. Deciding he wasn't going to die from it just yet, he looked up and smiled at Alex. "Hello, I'm Andrew Wells." The blonde said formally and offered his hand.

"Alex Nichols. Pleased to meet you." They shook hands,

"Andrew would you please aid me in looking for my glasses." Asked Giles much more pleasantly than he felt.

"They're probably on top of your head. That's where my Grandma's always were when she'd thought she'd lost them." Andrew rambled as he started to sift through wood shavings on the floor for the missing spectacles.

"Andrew, do they look like they are on my head."

Andrew turned to look up at the older man. "No but if they were invisibility goggles then you wouldn't be able to see them, would you."

"But then Andrew all of me would be invisible not just my glasses for Heaven's sake…hang on a minute, are you saying your Gran had invisibility goggles?"

Andrew thought about it for a while. "I don't think so, but then I haven't seen her for like five years. My mom said she died, but she could have just turned invisible. Hey, do you remember when Me, Warren and Jonathan turned Buffy inv…Ow! Xander that's the elbow I just landed on." He whined.

Xander had re-entered the barn and pushed roughly past the blonde just before he could say too much. "Yeah well you shouldn't be jabbering on with all your tall tales boring our guest."

Giles took one of the bottles of beer from between Xander's fingers and drank from it quickly. "Good God I needed that." He exclaimed. "Drowns the pain slightly."

"Are you hurt Giles?" Asked a concerned Willow, who had followed Xander into the barn, right behind her came Kennedy.

"Oh no, I just meant the pain of listening to Andrew all day." He made his way carefully to the sawhorse and sat down again.

"So did somebody call the cops?" Asked Kennedy, looking at Alex.

Alex looked a little shy now with so many eyes on him, he cleared his throat, took a sip of the beer Xander had handed him and started to explain.

"I just came with some news really. There was quite a nasty animal attack in the woods near L'Hotel Alfonze, this morning. We're not quite sure what did it yet; there is a lot of conflicting evidence which is making it difficult to pin it down. It's not something you need to worry about, we'll get it before it can hurt anyone else, but I just figured the Badger and Bear preservation society should get a heads up."

"Thank you." Said Giles simply, not wanting to talk about it with the young cop anymore.

"So you guys have absolutely no clue as to what did this?" Asked Kennedy, obviously feeling differently to the Watcher. "You haven't got a description of any kind, even an estimated size, maybe a paw print?"

"We have some stuff, but like I said, its conflicting and I can't really divulge any of the information we have gathered, to you, I'm sorry."

"Hey, no big. We can find stuff out for ourselves." Kennedy assured him.

"I don't think it's a really good idea for you to go looking into this. This isn't a bunny rabbit with a hurt paw that needs saving, it's a dangerous animal, one that we think is probably rabid, considering the amount of damage it's already done."

Kennedy just smiled at him innocently. "Sure thing officer."

"So do you know how many people this animal has killed so far?" Buffy asked as she stepped into the barn. She recognised the policeman from earlier, though she didn't know what he was doing here yet. She handed Giles his glasses and a saw without taking her eyes off of the newcomer.

Giles took them. "Uh, thank you." He said, bewildered as to how she came to have them.

"Uh that is, I can't …what makes you think it's killed anyone? Miss …" Alex finally settled on. He couldn't help wondering just how many people were living here.

"Alex this is Buffy, Buffy this is Alex." Xander introduced them.

"I know it killed two people this morning up by that hotel. Have there been any more victims? Do you think it is living in the caves? Where are the caves?" She asked in quick succession, hoping that confusing him would make him blurt out answers.

He may have been confused by Buffy's enquiry assault, but he didn't blurt. "I'm sorry …Buffy?" He looked at Xander for confirmation on her name, the carpenter nodded and smiled brightly back at him. "As I've already told your friends, I can't tell you any of that. What I can tell you is that your club could make our job a lot easier if you just kept out of it and let the animal control experts do their work. I'll tell you what; if you co-operate with this, then I'll have a word with the AC boys head office and I can probably get you all the wildlife statistics for the state of Ohio. That would surely give you're research a boost." Alex offered with a charming smile.

"Yeah, thanks for that." Buffy said in total confusion, she turned to Giles. "What research, I thought we were a private school, for …private stuff?"

"We are Buffy." He told her, polishing the multitude of tiny inexplicable smudges from his glasses.

"Then…?" She asked.

"Uh, people…" Said Andrew, but was ignored.

"Well Buffy, you remember how last week, some of us went on that little extra-curricular bear tracking exercise." Said Willow.

"Not really." Said Buffy.

"Well that's cause we haven't had a chance to fill you in since you've only been back five minutes." Said Kennedy.

"People!" Said Andrew a little louder and was ignored,

"But I'm guessing something went wrong with your patrol." Said Buffy to Kennedy.

"Hey nothing that could have been prevented." She snapped back.

"I'm sure." Buffy's tone was sarcastic.

"Well if you think you could have done better maybe you should have stuck around instead of swanning off to L.A." Kennedy snarled.

"Kennedy, it's okay. What happened, happened. It could just as easily gone wrong for Buffy." Willow assured her girlfriend.

The hammer hit Xander's makeshift bench so hard; it split the plywood top down the centre.

"Andrew!" Shouted everyone except Alex.

"Will you listen?" He shouted back. "It's gone four o clock and if all of you are here arguing and stuff, who's picking Dawn up."

"Oh shit!" Buffy left the barn at a sprint to go and get the car keys. She'd been so busy moping about she'd totally forgotten about picking up her little sister. She wouldn't have got the bus in case she missed them. So she was all alone at a new school, in a new town, where somewhere there was a Hellmouth, all because she was to self-involved to even remember her.

Alex stepped out of the barn before she'd made it into the house for the keys. "Hey Buffy. I can give you a lift, it'll be quicker."

"How so?" She asked already walking back to him.

He tapped the badge on his chest. "I can speed."

"Thank you."

* * *

Fen's car was big, like real big. It was only one step down from a limo and it was so cool. The back had a big spacious seat which the two of them were now sprawled across comfortably sharing a bag of chips. There was a sliding screen which separated the car into front and back. Fen had closed it as soon as the chauffeur had pulled away from the curb.

Dawn had told her new friend everything that had happened with Mr. Roberts and now the blonde sat there with a stunned look on her face while they tried to decide what Dawn should do next.

"I can't believe it. I mean he's so good-looking. You wouldn't think he'd need to rape his students to get some." Said Fen.

"I'm not making it up." Dawn promised with teary eyes.

"I know, I didn't mean to imply you did. And anyway I've heard rumours."

"Rumours?"

"Yeah about there being some sicko on the faculty, but you know, I just figured it was urban legends striking again. Every school claims to have at least one perverted teacher. It's just when I heard the rumour I figured it would be some schlep like Mr Eisenwern."

"Mr Eisenwern?"

"Yeah, the biology teacher who smells like a skunk that fell in a bait tank, and don't even get me started on his yellow ears. Ugh. But you know what I mean. You know someone like that is never going to get a date, so it's not surprising if they were to do something like this, but Mr Roberts…" She shook her head in disgust. "What are you going to do? Are you going to tell your sister?"

"Nah, at least not yet. She's got enough going on at the moment, plus she really wanted me to have at least one year at a decent high school, I don't want to shatter the illusion for her. I can handle this."

"Are you sure. I mean he threatened you, and it was a pretty nasty threat. I wouldn't want to be taking any chances with that. Why don't you tell Principal Hayes, I'll come with you?"

"He only said he'd hurt me if I told anyone. If he thinks I haven't then he won't have reason to hurt me and draw suspicion on himself." Said Dawn firmly.

"But he might come after you again. If he thinks you're scared of him. He'll just exploit it." Fen tried to reason.

"Then he'll find out that I'm not. I can take care of myself, Fen. My old town had a pretty rough element and it wasn't always possible to avoid it. Trust me, compared to them, dealing with Mr Roberts is gonna be like spreading cream cheese on a hot bagel."

"I still think you should tell someone, but if you are determined to do it this way, then I'll help if I can." Fen promised. "I want to see the scuzbucket go down."

"He will. Oh this is my stop."

Fen tapped on the partition glass and the driver pulled into the lane to Sunset house.

"Nice place!" She whistled through her teeth.

"And there's my brain dead sister." Said Dawn pointing Buffy out as she watched her walk to a jeep on the edge of the track and …oh my God, that's Alex, he must have arrested Buffy, that's why she couldn't come and get me." Dawn jumped out of the car and turned quickly to say thank you to Fen for the ride, before shutting the door and starting up the track.

"Give me a call later, if you can." Fen shouted out the window as the driver turned the almost limo around and drove away.

"Buffy, what is it? What happened?" Dawn ran over to the police Jeep.

"Dawn, oh thank God you're alright. I'm so sorry, we all just got caught up in something and well…I'm sorry. Alex was just about to give me a ride to come and get you." Buffy apologised all in a rush, seeing the drying tears at the corners of the younger girl's eyes and assuming it was because she'd been forgotten.

Dawn stared at her sister. "So you haven't been arrested? No bad stuff has been going on at all? You just got caught up chatting? I was stuck at school because you forgot about me. That's what you're saying, right?"

"Yeah, and I'm so sorry."

Dawn felt another flood of tears burning the backs of her eyeballs. She wanted to tell Buffy exactly what she thought about being forgotten and all the nasty little consequences of it. She didn't though, because she had a plan, and Buffy wasn't a part of it.

"Well thanks a bunch, sis." Was all she said, before storming past Buffy and Alex into the house.

"Teenagers can be hell to live with, can't they?" Said Alex when the back door slammed behind her.

Buffy nodded. "Oh yeah." She turned to look at him over the hood of the jeep. "So is it a younger brother or a younger sister that inflicts hell on you?"

"Neither, I just saw a programme on T.V. about it. Teenagers from Hell."

"Oookay."

* * *

The cell was almost silent and peaceful, that is it would be if you could forget where you were, all the general background noise made by a couple of thousand women forced into living together in cramped conditions, and the soft whimpering noises Janey made as she slept.

The big envelope from L.A. had contained a Wolfram and Hart brochure. Full to bursting with glossy photographs displaying the shiny offices from various sun-drenched angles, which nearly managed to disguise the darkness it was built on. The photos were accompanied by many poetically worded captions telling you what they, as a company, could do for you. Be you an employee, a client or a demon from the dark dimensions. Or all of the above Faith decided.

Tucked inside the front cover was a Wolfram and Hart compliments slip with a note written in Angel's beautiful, if old-fashioned script.

_Faith,_

_I thought you might like to have a look at our new offices, pretty grand compared to the Hyperion, I know, although the old girl had much more majesty going for her._

_I know you have your heart set on going to Cleveland once your appeal is done with, but if you change your mind at any point I've just had an opening come up as head of Special Operations that I think you would be perfect for. The last guy and I had a difference of opinion, professionally speaking, and let's just say he's no longer within my employ._

_If that doesn't suit, there's plenty more jobs available, just keep it in mind. No matter what happens, you'll always have a place to go._

_See you in court._

_Angel._

'I can just see me working in a law firm, wouldn't that be one up the ass for the losers back in Boston.' She thought as she stuck the note to the wall with her chewing gum. 'Little Faithy from the wrong side of the tracks is working in a top class, multi-million dollar law firm. Then again, it is an evil law firm; maybe they wouldn't be too surprised.'

She could think of at least one person who would have been proud of her as she flicked through the polished catalogue. The boss did all his business through Wolfram and Hart, that's how come Gunn could get all his old journals. He'd probably instructed his lawyer to keep them safe until he found some way of returning from beyond the deep-fried grilling. The thought made Faith shiver in the warm cell. The idea of the boss finding a way back had lost a lot of its appeal over the years. Once it had been all she'd thought about. After all, if Angel could find a way back from Hell, then why couldn't Richard Wilkins the third. On the one hand she'd hoped he would, so he could save her from this miserable existence she found herself in. On the other hand, what if he was mad that she'd gone to Angel for help and turned herself in for Buffy? Would he think that was a betrayal?

She shook herself out of that kind of dismal thinking with a physical shake of her head. Things weren't like that anymore. True, things weren't all cotton-candy tasting yet, but soon enough hopefully, and then one way or another she'd have a place to go to.

She flicked through the brochure one more time to put off opening the other letter, but it wasn't long before not knowing what it said was even worse than whatever could be written in it. She picked it up and ripped the envelope open with her thumb nail and pulled the thin sheet of paper from inside.

She'd figured that Buffy would be the type to use some kind of pink, scented, girly type stationary, but this was white and smelled of, well paper. She took a deep breath and unfolded it.

She checked the name at the bottom before reading anything else and was caught between disappointment and fear when she realised the letter wasn't even from B. Instantly panicked that one of the Scoobies was writing to tell her Buffy was dead, she went back to the start and speed read it.

_Faith,_

_Hi, you're probably wondering why I'm writing to you, and wishing I wasn't, so I'll keep it brief._

_I'm really sorry about what happened in the school basement. I never should have gone charging off and totally ignoring your orders. It was pretty obvious it was a trap and I was just stupid. I got people killed and I nearly got you killed and I'm sorry. I know I should have said this to you at the time, face to face, instead of putting it in a letter 2 months later, what can I say? I was ashamed of myself and I didn't want to think about it. I'm not usually that cowardly._

_When you get to Cleveland I'll say sorry in person and hopefully we can start fresh. None of us can wait until you get here, especially Buffy, who has been going totally crazy recently, that's mainly why we all want you here, so hopefully you can sort her out. Plus you might liven up Boudenver, when we were the only people left in SunnyD, it was still livelier than this town. Some help on patrol might be nice to, seeing as Buffy's decided it's not her responsibility anymore and so I'm stuck with taking all the trainees out at night._

_Okay, well so much for keeping it brief, anyway see you soon and good luck with your appeal._

_Kennedy._

_Ps. Dawn says Hi and to say hi to Buffy to next time she visits._

"Damn girl, you're starting to sound just like your girlfriend." Faith said softly to herself as she read the letter a second time. She'd all but forgotten the deal with Kennedy and getting blown up. The memory of waking up in B's bed to find her sitting there waiting was much more prominent than what had put her there in the first place. Why would Buffy be visiting again though? Hadn't she told her friends what had been said? Did they think she was still here? Was she still here somewhere in L.A? What did she mean about Buffy going crazy?

'Is that like "Crazy in love." Crazy," she thought, 'or "Good boy Cujo, let go of my throat." Crazy.'

A noise from the other bunk made her look up quick, Janey was facing her, still fast asleep but with her eyes a bit of the way open and doing that rapid eye movement thing which always looked wicked freaky to Faith. She looked back down at the letter, which was more of a note really, to avoid looking at her cell mate.

'It was nice of her to write. S'more than I woulda done in the circumstances.' Realising just how true that once had been and then remembering she was a different person now she scrabbled through the junk on her locker for some paper and a pen. Miraculously she actually found some fairly blank paper, but she had to make do with an eye-liner pencil to write with. She sucked on the end of it while she decided what to write back to Kennedy.

A strangled cry and a jumbo load of thrashing made her jump from her cot, the pencil falling from her mouth to the floor with a plop. She thought at first the young blonde was having some kind of seizure and she was about to leap on the panic button behind the door, when she recognised it for what it really was, something she was more than familiar with although she was normally on the receiving end. Janey was in the middle of a wicked ass nightmare.

She covered the three steps to the other bunk and reached down shaking the girl firmly by the shoulders. "J."

"No don't touch me, get off, get off." Janey sleep squealed and thrashed about harder.

"Janey, hey kid." Rougher shaking this time and a louder voice.

"I didn't mean…I didn't, please don't make me, I didn't mean…pleeeease."

"Hey, get it together kid, you'll have the screws in here thinking I'm killin…" Faith had been trying to turn Janey over so she couldn't bury her head in the hard pillow when the younger woman rolled over herself and lashed out a fist, catching Faith on the jaw and knocking her head back…hard.

Faith stepped back blinking and rubbing the back of her neck as she watched Janey slowly wake up.

"Oh God." She muttered to something only she could see, until the sleep cleared from her eyes and she saw the bruise already showing itself on Faith's chin and knew instinctively she'd done it. "No, no, no, not again." She sobbed, burying her head back into the bed clothes.

"J. Don't over react" Faith tried. "Ya just got a lucky punch in, in your sleep. I'll let it go."

"Did I hurt you?" She asked in a small voice, muffled further by the blankets.

"Nah, see. Hardly felt it. It's cool."

Janey twisted her head around enough to look up at the Slayer, tears still in her eyes. She didn't look convinced. "I…I…never meant to. It just all happened…again, I saw it all…again."

She was still shaking all over, so Faith did the only thing she could think to do, even though it went completely against her nature and everything she'd ever believed in. She sat down next to the new inmate, who looked younger than Dawn, and rubbed her shoulder gently. "You had a dream. A real doozy too, by the sound of it."

"It felt like I was there again." Janey relaxed a little under the gentle caress but the tremble hadn't left her voice.

"I get that. It might…" Faith was aware she was entering uncharted territory here. "I dunno; help if you talk about it, maybe."

Janey, hearing the compassion in the fumbled words, and having been sorely lacking in that of late, sat up and threw her arms around the Slayer's neck. Needing the comfort of closeness she'd always shared with her loving family but hadn't seen a spark of since this nightmare began, until right now. She sobbed quietly on Faith's shoulder.

Faith very nearly dumped Janey on the floor in shock. She'd just swam out of uncharted waters straight into shark infested seas with no warning. What the hell? Now what did she do? Vaguely she started to pat Janey on the back and tried not to feel claustrophobic.

"I didn't mean to kill him." Janey whispered into her shoulder. "I know no one believes me, but all I wanted to do was get him to leave me alone."

"Who's him?" Faith asked softly, changing her patting to rubbing motion, so the kid felt less like a dog.

"Rik. The boy I…" Her voice trailed away into nothing.

"How did he die?"

"I punched him, that's all I did, I swear. I punched him on the nose; I wanted to break it all over his stupid face for messing with me like that." Her voice was a well of confusion. "But I never meant to…" She swallowed hard. "I snapped his neck. One punch. Boxers' punch each other all the time, right and the guys at school, and they don't d…die." She sniffed. "I could see it in their faces, even the people who know me, my friends; they don't know how I did it. They all looked so scared, like I was some kind of freak, but he must have just had a weak neck, right?" She pulled back from Faith's shoulder to look her in the eye, but the Slayer was busy gawking into empty air. "Faith?"

The Slayer cleared her throat, the cogs in her brain turning fast enough to create sparks as things slipped into place and she recognised the sitch for what it was. The solution for beating the First may have been brilliant for their purpose and a shit-hot reward for the potentials that knew what they were getting into, but did any of them stop and think about how it would affect all the girls out there who had no idea what a Slayer was or could do. How many other girls were in Janey's position because they didn't have a Watcher to explain it all to them?

Faith had no love for Watchers what-so-ever, except for Giles, but she respected him for the man he was not the title he held. She knew enough now though to admit that she would have self-destructed a lot earlier if her first Watcher hadn't been there to help when she'd been called.

Realising that this responsibility now fell to her, for the time being at least, she just hoped she didn't screw it up. First though she had to make sure that this Rik jerk really hadn't just had a weak neck. She shifted Janey away from her, stood up and pulled her little locker away from the wall. She knelt down on one side.

"Get you're ass down here, J. It's arm-wrestling time." The dark Slayer grinned encouragingly, even though this fish had left water all together and was pretty much just flopping about on ice right now. Thin ice. If she did this wrong…

Janey just sat looking at her, wary and confused.

"Well, come on then!" Faith chuckled and slapped a palm gently on her locker.

Great, she was already making herself look like an idiot; maybe she would make a good Watcher after all.

* * *

"Look its simple. All I have to do is be alone with him." Dawn was sat against her bedroom door, speaking softly into her cell phone.

"It's too dangerous." Came Fen's voice, all crackly thanks to the cruddy signal they got in the middle of nowhere.

"It's not. I've faced way more dangerous things than Mr Pervert Roberts. Seriously I can handle this."

"I still think you should tell someone. Your sister, or, I don't know, you said you live with a bunch of adults surely one of them you can trust." Said her friend.

"I trust them all, that's not why I'm not telling them. They just don't need this right now. Especially Buffy, she's so strung out already that's why she forgot me, and now they've got this new …" She'd been about to say demon. Fen was cool, but Dawn didn't know if she was that cool. "Guest." She improvised. "They're working even harder."

"I'm gonna be right outside."

"You can't draw too much attention. If he thinks I'm planning something he'll never give us a chance to catch him out, not to mention he might try and follow through on his threat."

"You don't sound very scared Dawn. It's not even me he threatened to chop up and I'm crapping it."

"Well it's not exactly giving me a happy, but I can deal. And if it even looks like he's gonna pull a Sweeny Todd I'll scream at the top of my lungs, and then you and hopefully everyone else left in school will come running."

"Okay. If I can't talk you out of this, I can do it after fifth period, I have American history then." Fen sounded far from happy about it.

"That's great Fen, I really appreciate it. I better go now, see you in the morning." Dawn waited until her friend had said goodbye before ending the call and slipping the phone back in her pocket. 'Now for step 2'. She rubbed her hands together nervously.

* * *

Alex had declined going back into the barn with Buffy, and she figured it was all the bickering putting him off, she couldn't blame him. He cautioned her again about going after the dangerous animal and asked her to say "bye" to Xander for him. He gave her a beautiful smile before he left, which she couldn't see because it was buried beneath his bushy beard. If she had to make a guess, her guess would be that the sheriff and the deputy sheriff were closely related; she made a mental note to ask him next time.

With a bolstering sigh she entered the door of the barn herself. Everyone except Xander was moaning about Alex interfering. Xander was defending his new friend.

"All I'm saying is that he's just doing his job, you can't blame the guy for that."

"His job is to protect us from criminals, not demons he knows nothing about." Argued Kennedy.

"He doesn't know it's a demon does he, he thinks he's protecting us from some wild animal."

"The fact remains the same Xander; we can't have him meddling in our affairs. I'm concerned that the police here may be a great deal smarter than the police in Sunnydale." Said Giles.

"Who lets face it, couldn't find their tushies with both hands and a map." Chuckled Willow.

"Unless they were, like, sat on a doughnut or something." Agreed Andrew

"The smarter they are the more dangerous they are." Pointed out Kennedy. "We should be careful he doesn't find out to much. He's already warned Giles to behave, we don't want them snooping around."

"I agree, perhaps you could not invite him here again, Xander. Just to be on the safe side." Said Giles gently.

"I didn't invite him this time, but I think you're all going crazy. This could be a good thing. Having a member of the sheriffs department on our side, he might share info with us if we're nice to him. He's not going to do that if he thinks we're being mean." Xander tried a different approach, he certainly wasn't happy to be told he couldn't have his friends over, like he was a little kid or something. Didn't they trust his judgement anymore, did they think he would bring someone home without checking them out first. Alex was a nice guy, end of story; his profession didn't automatically make him a threat.

"That's nothing I can't get with a little hacker action, and on that note, I'd rather not have Alex around while I'm doing it." Willow replied.

"Buffy, what do you think?" Asked Giles. The blonde Slayer had been standing in the doorway listening to the conversation.

She shrugged. "He seems like a nice enough guy, a bit hairy for my taste." She stretched her arms over her head and clicked her neck. "I'm going to grab a sandwich, then go out and kill this beastie. Don't wait up."

"What about us?" Asked Kennedy before she could exit.

"Ham and salad okay for you?" Buffy asked genially.

"I wasn't talking about the sandwiches, B." Kennedy pointed out.

The blonde tensed. "My name is Buffy got it, and if you want to patrol, go ahead, I'm not stopping you." She started to walk out. "Just stay out of my way."

"What the hell happened in L.A. to turn her into an even bigger bitch than before?"

Buffy heard Kennedy loud and clear from outside the barn, she waited for one of her friends to jump in and defend her, when there was only silence in reply she lowered her head and walked swiftly to the back lane away from the house, she wasn't feeling very hungry anymore.

* * *

Andrew had been allowed a beer to reward all his hard work on the renovating. He was exhausted with all the climbing up and down the ladder every time he dropped the hammer. The thing he found with beer though was that it went straight through him so he'd left the others outside and had gone upstairs to the bathroom.

The upstairs landing only had a little window at one end of it and was already in gloom, despite there being about another hour of daylight left. He'd reached the top of the stairs when he first heard…

"Pssst."

He looked around but couldn't see anything that might make a noise. He continued on to the bathroom.

"Pssst."

He stopped and checked around the floor for snakes, just in case. They were living in the wilderness after all. There was nothing. He quickly stepped to the bathroom door and was about to push it open when…

"PSSST!"

…He jumped and spun around. "If you're evil I just want to warn you I'm learning Kung-Fu." He squealed and turned towards the source of the noise behind him.

Dawn was standing in her room with her door wide open. "You're learning it from a book." She reminded him.

"Theories important." He said sulkily. "What do you want? I need to pee."

"Ugh. Thanks for the excessive information." Dawn shivered with disgust. "Now get in here, I need your help with something."

"I need the bathroom." He told her again.

"That can wait, this can't. Quickly." She commanded, stepping to one side to so he could walk in.

With a loud sigh he did as she wanted. She checked over his shoulder to make sure no one was around before softly closing her bedroom door.

"So what do you want?" Asked Andrew again, jiggling from one foot to the other in respect to his bladder.

"Okay, what I'm about to tell you, you have to swear not to tell anyone." She warned.

"Okay." He agreed readily hoping to hurry it up.

"Swear." She insisted. "Swear on something important."

"Okay." He fought the urge to cup himself through his pants as he thought quickly. 'Ah got it.' "Okay, I swear on the brand new Babylon Season one DVD box set. How's that?"

"That's Xander's; you can't swear on something that isn't even yours."

"Why not? I don't want anything to happen to it, so it counts."

"Fine." Said Dawn, shaking her head. "I know you brought lots of new camera stuff in L.A. I need to borrow some of it."

"Why?" The blonde teenager asked suspiciously.

"I'll tell you in a minute. First go get. I need something small, suitable for surveillance and I need you to show me how to set it up."

"Okay fine, but I'm going to the bathroom first." He told her beforescuttling out of her room. She rolled her eyes.

* * *

Buffy twiddled her stake as she wandered up the lane. It was dark now and she'd been out for nearly three hours. Which was fine by her, she had no wish to get back to the house anytime soon.

She didn't know if Kennedy had brought out the other girls or not. The night before she had known they were around, she'd been able to sense them all over the place, almost as if they'd been following her. When she'd taken out the three hedgehog demons she'd been able to see Cici's foot peaking out from behind the bush. Other than that they had been pretty stealthy for newbies. Kennedy obviously wasn't doing to bad a job with them.

In fact if Kennedy could just lose the attitude for five minutes, she and her might actually get along. The brunette's words had stung earlier.

'I'm not being a bitch and what did she mean by – an even bigger bitch than before. Just because I want a little time on my own here, doesn't make me one. You would have thought that everyone would be craving a little alone time after Sunnydale. It's not like this place is exactly a demonic party town right now either. We've got time to settle in and get used to the place. Training the new girls doesn't have to happen over night.' She mused as she walked along, kicking up leaves as she went. 'Ken's just got to learn to slow down. Fair enough she's been waiting to get Slayerised since she was, what, nine? Doesn't mean she has to fit the whole experience into a few short weeks. She should want to take it easy, learn her craft, before rushing in. She's just too impulsive and headstrong and it'll end in tears. Look what happened to…'

Buffy spun and kicked a low branch off a tree with a loud cracking sound.

"Slayers just aren't supposed to get along." Buffy said softly to herself, resuming her walk. "That's the mystical reason for there only being a Chosen One, not a Chosen Three or Four. I can't get along with Faith unless we're eating or sleeping together, so basically when we've got our mouths full and can't actually speak. It's no wonder I'm the same with Kennedy, except for the sleeping together obviously."

It wasn't the first time she'd noticed the similarities between the two brunette Slayers. Despite neither of them being able to pronounce her full name, they were both wilful and stubborn and determined to do something once they'd made up their minds. At the back of her mind, the bit that knew her better than she knew herself so to speak, she knew she'd just described herself as well and probably every other Slayer that now walked the Earth, but there was something different about Faith, obviously, and Kennedy had that something too. The explosion at the school basement had proved that. Buffy wasn't thinking about the girl's foolishness in running in there without thinking. It was more her resolve to get in there and get the job done that Buffy admired. It was one of the things that had attracted her to Faith all those years ago in Sunnydale. Her attitude to get in there and get the job done, no matter what the odds. It was what she herself had done when she'd faced the Master back in her first year in Sunnydale. It was what made you a good Slayer, she guessed, or maybe not a good Slayer, but a Slayer with durability.

She'd walked all the way up to the caves now and was standing staring up at the dark mouth of the one with the blood tracks leading into it. She checked the knife she carried in her boot, something she'd picked up from Faith, and then climbed up the side of the hill to the entrance.

"So here's where I go and be a good, durable Slayer then." She said before striding in. "Maybe a good Slayer would have brought a flash-light." Her voice echoed in the pitch black of the tunnel.

* * *

"Okay Kennedy, I get that we're Slayers and we have to patrol, but this is the second night we've just walked around Boudenver in the dark and found nothing." Complained Alison, as they all stomped along Old Town Road, past the McGee farm and onwards.

"Yeah and at least yesterday night we got to watch Buffy, tonight there's nothing but us out here." Miranda agreed with Alison.

"Yeah well, Buffy is being her usual difficult self, so we're gonna keep out of her way for tonight." Kennedy kept an ear out for anything monstrous but she had to admit there was nothing about.

"Yeah what's her damage anyway?" Asked Alison.

"The official view point is a broken heart." Kennedy responded, not adding that her own personal view point was that Buffy was behaving like a total brat and needed to get over herself.

"You mean because her boyfriend died in "The Big Battle." Cici used finger quotes. They had all heard about the Big Battle in extreme detail from Kennedy, Dawn and Andrew.

"Her boyfriend. I thought she was a lesbian. Isn't that what the red-head was babbling on about earlier?" Asked the new girl, Kate.

"The jury are still out on that one." Kennedy told her with a smirk. "She was seeing this vamp called Spike…"

"A vampire…don't we kill them?" Asked Kate.

"Spike?" Alison laughed.

Kennedy laughed with her. "Yes, and yes he died on the Hellmouth, saving the world believe it or not. If it weren't for him I wouldn't be here today, but don't think that means it's alright to get friendly with vamps, its not. Spike was souled, the rest of them are scum. You see one," she said determinedly, "you stake one."

"Sold?" Asked Miranda. "Sold to whom?"

"I think Kennedy means that he had a soul." Explained Cici.

"S'not like any of us has ever seen a vampire anyway." Said Alison, it sounded like a grumble. "All we've seen are demons."

"You're right, there does seem to be a distinct lack of the fang club up here. Must be something to do with the Hellmouth's energy. I'll speak to Giles about it."

Kennedy had been wondering about that herself. In Sunnydale, vampires had been a dime a dozen, but here, the only three she'd seen had been the night before and Buffy had staked them before the other girls even set eyes on them. Willow had explained to her that the Hellmouth here had been dormant for several years, but now was awakening; she believed that the power would only get stronger so in the future there would be vamps aplenty.

"Let's try up here." She told the girls leading them through a patch of trees away from the road.

* * *

"Okay so it's either one of these then." Decided Dawn, looking between the two cameras Andrew had laid out on her bed.

"Yep. This one can pick up a pin dropping from the other side of the room, the sound head is so sensitive, but you lose on the size." He pointed to a regular looking camcorder. "And you'll only get an hours recording on it. Unless you want to fit a separate battery but then that will make it even bigger."

Dawn turned it over in her hands a few times. This would be the easiest to use, she knew, but… "It's too big. I think it'll have to be this one."

"Well you can fit that anywhere, the visual's okay as well, it'll pick things up really clear and you can get about three hours recording from one recharge. The only drawback is no sound. To get sound on this, you need to set a separate microphone on the person you want to record."

"I can't do that."

"I know, so you'll have to stay in shot of the camera."

"Okay."

"You know you should tell Buffy, right. You could get hurt or worse, and anyway how do you think Buffy's going to feel when she finds out you didn't go to her with something as important as this."

"She'll get over it. Its not like she can actually focus on anything that doesn't have Faith's name in it anyway and by tomorrow it will all be over and I'll have dealt with it."

Andrew nodded but he wasn't very happy about it. If only he'd sworn on something stupid like the dishwasher, he could live without the dishwasher.

* * *

Dawn woke up the next morning with a herd of buffalo flying around in her stomach in little planes like the one Snoopy and Woodstock used. She rubbed it tenderly and wondered if it wouldn't be better just to stay home sick. Groaning, she pulled herself out of bed and padded to the bathroom she shared with Buffy.

Her sister still hadn't gotten back from patrol, unless she'd gone straight to sleep covered in vamp dust and demon goo. Something the Slayer only ever did if she was too injured to stand up in the shower. She knocked lightly on the interconnecting door, when she got no reply she gently pushed it open a bit. Nope, no half dead Buffy there. Which was good obviously, as long as she hadn't been eaten by something nasty and that's why she hadn't made it to bed.

Dawn had been so pleased when she learned that Buffy wasn't going to be battling the forces of darkness alone anymore, but then Andrew had told her last night, that she had still gone patrolling on her own. It didn't make any sense. Her sister had said she was tired of being alone, of having to deal with the weight of the world on only her shoulders, but now she could share the load, she didn't want to. The younger Summers' doubted she would ever understand her sister.

She closed the door again and prepared to face her own battles.

* * *

Buffy was downstairs sipping orange juice when Dawn finally made it down the stairs dressed for school.

"Hey Dawn. I'm sorry about yesterday. Do you forgive me?"

Dawn shrugged and poured herself some cereal. "I guess. You don't have to pick me up today though, so don't worry about it."

"What do you mean I don't have to pick you up? How will you get home?"

"Same way I did yesterday, Fen offered to give me a ride, plus we're going to the library to study straight after school so I'll be home a little late."

Andrew and Willow walked into the kitchen together. Andrew looked at the ground, uncomfortable with Dawn's lie. Willow beamed.

"There's my Dawnie. Getting with the studying already and it's only the third day of term." She enthused. "If you want to borrow the lap top to get on the internet you can. Maybe if you do well in your finals Giles will stretch to getting you one of your own for next year."

"Yeah thanks Willow." Normally something like this would have had Dawn doing the Dance of Gratuitous Expenditure, but today it could barely raise a smile.

"Don't scare the poor girl with finals talk yet, Will." Buffy had noticed Dawn's tortured expression at the witch's offer and assumed it was down to exam fear, she could definitely relate. "Like you said, it's only the beginning of term."

Dawn stirred her cereal around a few times in her bowl before deciding she couldn't stomach it and getting up to throw it away. Xander rescued it before the bowl tipped enough to unload the contents into the bin.

"Thank you." He said with a grin and sat down to polish it off.

She smiled at him. It was still strained. "I'm going to wait outside, Buffy, okay." She left through the back door.

"Is she feeling okay?" Willow asked Buffy.

Buffy shrugged. "Didn't seem like it. Maybe there's a boy at school she likes. She's probably not even going to the library after school she just wants to hang out." Buffy rolled her eyes.

No one noticed Andrew wince and walk through to the sitting room, where he stood staring lovingly at the Babylon 5 box-set in pride of place by the T.V.

"Come on Buffy, not everyone does that. I didn't do that; I was always _at_ the library." Said Willow.

"Yeah but so were the cute boys you liked too." Buffy reminded her with a smirk, shooting a look at Xander, who obliviously ate Dawn's left over cereal.

"Xander doesn't count. I already knew him before I even met the library."

"Okay, well you and Oz had plenty of smoochies in the library too. I'm just saying that studying time doesn't always lead to books. I'd better take Dawn." Buffy got up and walked out missing Willow's wide eyed response to Oz's name.

* * *

Dawn was quiet all the way to school but when Buffy commented on it, she assured her sister she was fine, in a very annoyed voice so Buffy just shut up and drove. She was sure Dawn would tell her if there was a problem, and she'd never been a morning person why should she expect her sister to be.

Dawn almost leapt out of the car when they reached the front drive of McKinley High; Buffy's shout of goodbye was lost in the slam of the door. She saw her sisters bemused look and she offered a half-hearted wave hoping that would satisfy her and she'd go. She did. She walked slowly down the drive and had only gone a few yards when a hand on her arm made her jump out of her skin. She spun around.

"Jeez Fen, did you have to scare the crap out of me."

Fen didn't look much better than Dawn did. "Sorry. Quick let's got to the maintenance shed before we're seen."

Dawn nodded and they both hurried off.

* * *

Buffy pulled the car up in front of the house and got out just in time to run into Giles. He was sneaking out on to the front porch to drink a quiet cup of tea.

"Good morning Buffy. Did you sleep well?" He asked politely, lowering himself down on the top step.

She went and sat beside him. "Um yeah I'm gonna get to that sometime today."

"You mean you haven't been to bed again?" He was concerned now.

She stifled a yawn as the conversation reminded her that in fact she hadn't. "I was out hunting the killer demon all night, and then I had to take Dawn to school. I'll make it there later."

"You know we can all help with Dawn's school run, you don't have to do it everyday." He reminded her before asking. "Any luck?"

"Nope not a sausage. I checked out the caves where that Alex guy figured they'd been eaten, but nothing. I mean I can't be sure I checked it all 'cause there were miles and miles of tunnels and me being experienced in this type of thing forgot to take a flash-light. I didn't pick up any evil vibes though, or come across any leftovers. I did a sweep of the woods after and kept at it until an hour before dawn with nothing to show for it. I'm thinking either this thing's moved on already or Animal Control has it and are wondering what the hell they've got themselves into."

Giles allowed himself a chuckle at that. "Hmm yes quite. Well Kennedy and the girls had no luck either." He reported.

He received no response; Buffy was looking down at her sneakers.

"You know, it's not impossible that you could offer these girls a great deal Buffy." He tried.

"I've given them everything I can Giles. I've given them monsters, a short life expectancy and the full usage of my nearest and dearest. What else do they want?"

"They could learn so much about their powers, their skills, their calling, from you."

"I'm not a Watcher."

"No you're not, you are a Slayer, and as you have always pointed out to me, I have no real idea of what that is like." Giles rested his cup to the side and put his hand on his Slayer's shoulder. "I understand you want some time to yourself, to figure out what you want from life, and no one will disagree that you deserve it. However if you are going out on patrol anyway, like last night, is there any reason you can't take at least some of the girls with you."

"I wasn't patrolling last night, I was hunting. Something that needs to be done quickly, quietly and without a background of girl-chatter. These girls are too green to be out on a serious hunt. They've not even had any training yet, they don't even know what it is to be a Slayer." Buffy insisted quietly.

"Not even Kennedy?"

"Kennedy is enjoying being the big Slayer on campus; it would only get her back up if I started telling her what to do."

"I was thinking more along the lines of patrolling with you, or training with you. Like you and Faith used to." Giles noticed Buffy's flinch at her dark counterpart's name, but didn't press that issue, one at a time. "Kennedy is being expected to take on a lot with you not interested in helping with the youngsters, and she is still rather green, as you say, herself. Maybe working with you one on one, tonight for example, will help boost her confidence and that will in turn help the new girls."

Buffy stood up and dusted off her ass. "Kennedy needing more confidence are you kidding me." Off his sceptical look she softened slightly. "I dunno, maybe. I'll think about it. Is the lecture done with now, 'cause I want to go for a jog."

"Yes Buffy the lecture is over." The Watcher stood too. "I'm just asking you to think about it. I know that you want to retire from Slaying and the only reason you've been out the past two nights is to take your mind off of your problems with Faith, but with resources here in short supply it seems a shame to waste your, ah, comfort food." He disappeared back through the front door before she could refute his statement.

Shaking her head at know-it-all Watchers, she set off for her jog.

* * *

The bell had rung for home room five minutes before, there was ten minutes left as Dawn slowly made her way up the hall. Fen had left her in the maintenance shed just before the bell had rung so she wouldn't be late herself.

Dawn opened the door to her classroom and sauntered in as casually as she could manage with the way her heart was beating. She just hoped it didn't sound as loud to everyone else as it did to her.

She was halfway to her chair when Mr Roberts looked up and saw her.

"Miss Summers, you did hear me yesterday didn't you, when I explained I will not accept tardiness from any of my students.

"Yes Mr Roberts." She replied meekly, darting the rest of the way to her place beside Fen and sitting down quickly.

"Dawn stand up when I am addressing you." He barked.

She shot up again, her face turning pink.

"You will come here for detention after school, if you decide you don't want to, we can always make it a Saturday detention, understand?"

She looked up at him, he wasn't smiling or anything but she could tell he was loving every minute of making her squirm. Well they'd see who had the last squirm wouldn't they. "Yes Mr Roberts."

He finally let her sit down and he got on with what he had been talking about before she entered. Two minutes before the bell rang Sethos walked through the door.

'Now what's he going to do. He can't ignore it, but will he want us both in detention together' wondered Dawn. Fen gave her a look obviously thinking the same thing. 'Well he was late yesterday; he'll probably get a Saturday detention.'

"Sethos, late again. Be here after school for detention. If you don't turn up this time it will go on your permanent record, and I'll inform your father personally."

Sethos looked like he wanted to hit the teacher but he just said. "Okay." And sat down.

'Now what happens?' Dawn threw a panicked glance towards Fen who shrugged. 'If Sethos is in here with us,' she thought, 'there's no way he'll try anything.' She didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed. She'd put so much nervous energy into this plan she had to go through with it, but having Sethos there would be an easy out. 'Like he'll turn up anyway.'

* * *

Kennedy felt like a drill sergeant as her feet thumped along another narrow track through the trees.

"Come on you lot keep up." She called over her shoulder to the five girls jogging behind her. Then she started the song again.

"We're all here from far and wide

To combat darkness and kick demon hide.

Vampires run and werewolves cry

'Cause when we arrive the fur will fly.

One, two. Three, four.

One, two, three, four."

"Do we have to sing the song?" Asked Alison.

"What's wrong with the song?" Asked Kennedy, turning and jogging backwards so she could face the girls while they spoke.

"I think it's a good song." Offered Kate. Miranda immediately agreed with her, not wanting to upset Kennedy.

"It's not the song I have a problem with; it's just singing it while we're jogging seems a bit lame."

Kennedy gritted her teeth. "Then don't sing it."

"Oh come on Alison. Join in, it's fun." A smiling, red-faced Cici said.

Kennedy turned back around and upped the pace a little. "Tell you what. Why don't we all have a go at making up a song?" She smiled grimly to herself. "This is compulsory; it builds team spirit and originality, which is needed in thinking up puns. A valuable weapon in the Slayer arsenal. Alison, you're up first."

Alison groaned loudly.

* * *

Buffy had been running hard for ages, mostly heading up the track she had patrolled the night before to see if there was any more clues to be seen in daylight. So far she'd found nothing new.

She stopped a mile above the caves and bent double, her hands on her knees, breathing hard. She was loving the feeling of her feet pounding the grassy track in rhythm with her heartbeat, but she had caught the crackling of twigs under heavy feet and it was harder to listen with the air rushing past her ears.

Crackle snap. There it was again. Something large was trying to creep through the trees towards her, but it wasn't doing to good a job at the creeping. She bounced on the balls of her feet a few times, bringing her head even lower between her legs and touching her hands on the grass. Looking between her knees at the trees behind her, she could make out a shadow moving, but nothing of its shape or size. It could be human, it could be demon, or it could be a real life bear.

Whatever it was there was no mistaking it was coming for her. It shuffled about just inside the tree line, a pair of green eyes glowed from the shadows. The colour wasn't particularly supernatural, but the fact that the eyes looked to be a good seven or eight feet from the ground probably ruled out human. Didn't rule out bear though.

Her upside down view point was starting to make her dizzy so she straightened back up and turned slowly to face her company. 'Do bears have green eyes?' She wondered. She figured probably not.

"Come on then, come out and play with the Slayer." She called into the dappled darkness of the woods.

She was answered with a growl. This still left her no clearer on the species.

"Don't make me come in there and get you." She tried next, wishing that she'd thought to bring more than a stake out jogging with her. She didn't even have a knife because it just kept falling out of her sneaker and looked stupid.

Another growl, deeper this time, somehow sounding angrier than the first.

She pulled the stake free from the back of her shorts. "Okay I warned you." She walked confidently towards the trees, the stake held high as a distraction. When she judged she was close enough she snapped her right leg out at the height she assumed the things kneecap would be.

"Okay, bears can't do that, except maybe in the circus." She grumbled as she struggled to get to her feet.

Whatever it was had grabbed her foot and wrenched it round, using it as leverage to fling her across the track into a tree on the far side. It had all happened so fast, the only thing she'd seen was a glimpse of matted black hair on a hand the size of a turkey plate. She looked at what had been her stake lying on the ground near her, now it was just three splinters of wood. She sighed.

Once she was on her feet she limped across the track once more, staying just out of reach, she hoped. She peered into the gloom trying to make out what creature she was messing with, when the hand snaked out again, this time catching her on the side of her head and literally bowling her off of her feet. She landed on the grass again, clutching at her side where it had smacked into the ground.

She was startled to her feet when the thing spoke. "Leave us Slayer. Leave us alone." The things voice sounded like it had way too many teeth in its mouth, which gave her the shivers; the things hands were bad enough.

"No can do, I'm afraid. I can't just leave you up here to eat people when you feel like it." She came closer to the trees again, her eyes watchful for any attack. "What sort of Sl…person would that make me, huh?"

"I didn't eat anyone." The creature insisted.

"No. So the head just fell off on its own did it?"

The thing sounded like it was chuckling softly. "Goorzar like to play, she get carried away."

"Right that's it. Either you come out here and fight like a…well whatever you are, or I'm going to set fire to the trees." She crouched and picked up two sticks and rubbed them together threateningly.

A big, black-haired, gorilla type thing jumped out of the trees to land in front of her, swiping with it's huge hands at the twigs she held in her small ones. Sending them flying and making her hands sting like crazy. It roared the words. "Leave family alone or I kill you and eat your head."

"Ow! Get a grip Mrs Kong, s'not like I could have done it anyway." She backed up holding her sore hand close to her chest. The monster advanced.

"You would hurt Goorzar." It growled. It wasn't a question, more of an accusation.

Buffy held her hands up in supplication and looked into the face of the ape-demon which was at least two or three feet taller than she was. "No hurting, I promise, just wanted to ask you nicely not to kill any…" The things fist swiped again and she had to flatten herself quickly to avoid it. She gulped "…one again."

"I no kill, they die. Humans fragile." Another fist swipe she rolled away from. "I take them to show Goorzar. They're hearts stopped. No my fault." Another swipe, this one catching Buffy on her left hip and sending her up into the air.

She landed on her feet awkwardly. Panting she asked. "You expect me to believe that. I saw them, they were mauled."

"Humans fragile. They in my home, I no go in theirs. They kill me. I no kill them, they fragile hearts stop."

From what Buffy could figure out from her opponent, apart from the fact that she, if it was a she, was feeling hard done by right now, was that she was slow on her legs. Her arms had a long reach and could bend like spaghetti, but a lot faster than spaghetti had ever hoped to move, and had big powerful meatball shaped muscles. Its legs however, barely shuffled in place. They just seemed to be there to hold the thing steady while its arms lashed about.

The next time the thing swung an arm in her direction, she rolled forward beneath its arc and shot her left heal into its shin. The things legs may have been slow, but they were as wide as tree trunks. It barely flinched from her kick, just roared and reached a huge hand down to trap the Slayer where she lay.

"You fragile human too?" It asked in its horrible voice.

"Oh crap." Buffy struggled, but the hand easily pinned her torso to the floor. "Now what?"

* * *

The trees shook and all the birds flew away when they heard what was coming, chattering to each other to warn of the impending terror.

"Every time you turn out the light.

We're right there giving demons a fright.

They can run and they can scream

Because they're all scared of the Slayers team."

"Good one Cici." Kennedy called over her shoulder as they carried on around the next twist in the track. "You're turn, Miranda."

They ran in silence for a few minutes while the black-haired girl racked her brains.

"Uh, okay, how about…We are Slayers one and all

Demon armies are bound to fall.

Then we'll show them a thing or two

About not, uh, eating people…I think I kinda lost it there." Miranda's blush was hidden beneath the flushed cheeks caused by running.

"Never mind it was still go…" Kennedy stopped in her tracks and everyone banged into her. "Anyone else here that?" She asked as they righted themselves once more.

"Like the roaring, you mean?" Asked Kate, looking around.

"Yeah, exactly like that." Kennedy was pretty sure it came from through the bank of trees to their left, away up the hill a little.

"Someone else who probably doesn't like our singing." Joked Alison, earning her a glare from the senior Slayer.

"Come on. Quietly." She made her way through the trees. Probably it was nothing, but maybe not.

The roar came again before they reached the track they could just make out through the leaves and everyone flattened themselves against tree trunks. When nothing crashed through the undergrowth, Kennedy signalled for them to move on again. They emerged on the track and followed it slightly up hill, around a bend and guess what, it wasn't nothing.

Kennedy took one look at the scene and launched herself at the big, dark-haired ape in front of her. She landed on its back but it barely seemed to notice, it swiped her off while its attention was still focused on the struggling blonde beneath its huge hand. She landed with a thump by its feet.

"Kennedy, you need weapons." Buffy called still struggling.

"See you kill me, but I no allowed to kill you. That no fair." Said the monster.

"Sorry dude, that's the way it works." Kennedy kicked out at the things ankle with both feet. "Are you just gonna stand there and watch." She called to the other Slayers.

As if they had just been waiting for this cue all four of them surged forward. None of them had weapons so they settled for annoying it as much as they could. They pulled at her hair, grabbing fistfuls of the coarse covering and pulling with all their Slayer strength. Soon she was annoyed enough to loosen her grip on Buffy and the blonde used one of the ape's retreating fingers to pull herself upright, before biting down on it hard.

The thing actually squealed like a pig, which wasn't anywhere near as scary as the roar that followed it. It shook Buffy away and lashed out at Kennedy with the same hand, but it couldn't reach the trainee Slayers pulling at her hair from behind. Angrily the she-demon shuffled around on her slow but powerful legs but the Slayers always stayed behind her. It was frustrating her no end and she let out another roar.

Buffy and Kennedy were both laying a little way from each other watching, and they were both grinning, finally Buffy realised the new girls couldn't keep that up forever and scrambled back to her feet, Kennedy hopped up right along side her.

"We've got no weapons, Buffy; I didn't expect to be attacked in broad daylight." Kennedy apologised.

"You're not the only one." Buffy admitted that she had been caught off guard too. "Follow me."

Puzzled as to why the blonde was running into the trees, she nevertheless followed, pleased not to be the one making the decisions.

Buffy jumped up at a sturdy looking branch not to high above her head and swung on it, it didn't break like she had hoped. "Ken, grab my legs and pull."

With a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure the girls were still holding their own she complied.

Between them they managed to snap the branch off and Buffy dropped back to the ground and caught it in one fluid movement. She dropped it on the ground.

"Again." She commanded, jumping up at another solid looking branch.

They repeated the action and now they both had long, thick branches.

"Which side do you want?" Buffy asked as they dashed back to the track.

"I can only sleep on the left." Quipped Kennedy.

Buffy grinned. "Good to know, I'll take right then. Hit it anyway you can."

She watched as Kennedy took a swing at the beast's back and Alison yelped as her fingers got in the way.

"Ooops. Maybe you kids should stand back a bit." She added as an after thought, although she noticed Kennedy didn't look to sorry about her mistake.

Between them they beat the beast down. Both landing blows to her back and legs, and ducking or rolling anytime one of the massive hands lashed out. Soon she fell to her knees and they were able to beat it about the head as well.

"Kennedy stop." The ape thing was now lying on her side, in a pool of blood, but it was still alive and growling softly. Buffy just couldn't go on beating it to death it felt wrong. "We have to kill it quicker." She muttered to the brunette Slayer.

Kennedy nodded and grabbed hold of the things head, preparing to twist and break her neck.

Then the demon spoke. "You must…Goorzar. She only a baby." A big hand was raised and the small Slayer automatically tried to flinch back, but the demon only wanted to clasp her shoulder as it urgently wheezed: "Please…look after Goorzar…please."

Kennedy found herself agreeing even though she didn't have a clue why. "Okay. We will." Then she twisted, hard to the right. The neck snapped and the monster went limp and Kennedy jumped back shaking.

Buffy put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "S'okay Ken. You did good." Everyone watched as the body turned mushy and sunk away into the grass, not even leaving any blood behind.

"Well that was interesting." Said Kate.

"Definitely one of the easier ones." Said Buffy, thinking about the clean-up they wouldn't have to do.

"Wasn't easy." Said Kennedy quietly still looking at the spot where it had been.

"I didn't like that it could talk." Said Miranda.

"We have to find its baby. It said it had a baby." Said Kennedy, speaking only to Buffy.

"So let's start looking." Buffy agreed. "Teams of two, spread out but don't go too far, we don't know how big this baby is, so you see anything: shout." Buffy started to walk into the woods. "Come on Kennedy, you're with me."

"Considering how big mama monkey was, I'm thinking her baby is gonna be at least a twelve pounder." Said Alison, walking into the woods with Kate, on the other side of the track. Cici and Miranda went in another direction.

"You okay?" Buffy asked when they'd gone a little way.

"Uh huh." Kennedy answered with her head down; she still held the stick and was using it to poke into bushes.

"Thanks for the rescue."

"S'what Slayers do."

Buffy nodded. "You wanna tell me what's freaking you out?"

"Killing something with my bare hands. I know it was an evil something, but, you know, it has a baby. I just killed a baby's mother. With my bare hands." She said honestly, but not looking at Buffy.

"You did what you had to do; it's not always easy I know."

Kennedy smiled a bit. "I guess I should feel better that it's probably an evil baby right?"

Buffy smiled back and was about to respond when a shout from Miranda interrupted them.

They all converged by the nest Miranda and Cici had found. It was a four foot by four foot dome shaped structure woven carefully with twigs, leaves and grass, set back into the trunk of a huge hollow tree it easily would have been missed if not for the sad whimpering coming from inside.

"Anyone?" Asked Buffy, pointing at the hole in the side.

No one volunteered. So Buffy stepped up and was about to lean down inside, mindful of losing her head, when Kennedy put a hand out to stop her.

"I killed mommy, I feel kinda responsible for it."

"Can't we just kill it from out here?" Asked Alison.

"We need to know its dead." Said Kennedy before Buffy could and then she leaned forward into the hole, her arms held out in front of her in case it decided to attack.

"Aww, look at you." Echoed around the inside of the nest and filtered out to the rest of them.

Buffy and the new Slayers exchanged a glance.

Kennedy straightened back up, pulling herself back out of the hole and in her arms was a little ball of black hair that was whimpering and trying desperately to bury its head under Kennedy's arm. The Slayer herself had a very non-slayerish goofy smile plastered across her face.

The little bundle yelped out a word that sounded like "Mommy," and curled up even tighter in her arms. The other girls huddled around for a closer look.

"We should take her home." Said Kennedy enthusiastically. "Let Giles study her, it could be very informative."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, but didn't say no.

* * *

They had gone over and over the plan at lunch time and all that was left was to sit and stew until after school. Providing Fen could do her part after fifth period, before Mr Roberts got back into the room, and then there would be no problems.

She would catch him out doing whatever nasty stuff he thought he could get away with doing and then she would take it to someone. Principal Hayes probably and then the bastard would be fired.

She shifted in her seat, unable to concentrate on her English class because of all the stuff spinning around and around in her head. Sethos was in this class too although they sat quite far apart, so if she wanted to find out if he was going to detention she'd have to wait until afterwards. At least if she knew one or the other it might get rid of some of the uncertainty she was feeling. If he wasn't going to be there then it would be full steam ahead until it got to the point of no return.

She chewed on the end of her pen while the minutes ticked by. Only one class to go after this one.

* * *

Xander and Andrew were back in the big barn that was being turned into a dormitory. The one-eyed young man had spent the day up the ladder figuring it would be quicker for him to do that job, and Andrew had been painting the partitions a cornflower blue. Giles had begged the day off, insisting he had Council business to attend to which couldn't wait.

Xander had nailed the last of the prepared boards into the roof and was now sitting quietly by the door sanding down the next bunch. He was often quiet now when he wasn't drinking, thought Andrew.

He looked over at him while he swept up the mess of the day and wondered again if he should tell.

Xander felt the young blonde's eyes on him for like the hundredth time and it was starting to make him uncomfortable. "I'm not your type." He said without looking up.

"Huh?" Andrew stopped and stared at him fully, as the carpenters words sunk he blushed a deep crimson. "I…I…I…" He stuttered in response.

"Spit it out Andy. You've been bugging me with these sidelong looks all day. What's the what?"

"Nothing." Andrew put his head down and kept sweeping.

"I know when you're lying. I can see it in your eyes, so just spill already."

"I'm not allowed to tell you." Andrew told him. "I promised."

Xander stood up. "Okay Andrew, you can keep your promise, but if this is the type of secret where someone is gonna get hurt…" He walked towards the blonde slowly until he was standing in front of him. "…Someone I care about. Then I'm going to do this…" He swiped the sandpaper he still held along Andrew's knuckles where they gripped the broom handle. "…Across that fluff on your chin."

"Oww, okay I want to tell you anyway, but if Dawn gets mad you gotta tell her I didn't crack until you used the scratchy paper…on my face, not my fingers." He clarified.

"Dawn's in some kind of trouble then?" Xander asked.

"Uh huh, at school, but she wants to handle it herself, that's why she didn't tell anyone."

"What? Is someone bullying her?"

"Teacher trouble. Bad teacher trouble. As in - after school special gone terribly wrong – teacher trouble." Andrew babbled. "She wants to catch him in the act."

"Act of what, Andrew?" Xander asked very seriously.

Andrew explained the few details of the plan he knew, just enough to know that they had to stop it before it had a chance to go wrong, or for that matter, even began.

"Buffy and Kennedy still aren't back, Xander, what are we going to do?" Andrew looked like he might cry. "School finishes in an hour."

"That's okay, we've got time." Assured Xander. "Phone Alex, his numbers on the fridge. Tell him exactly what you told me, but with less words. When Buff gets back do not tell her, we don't need her going all Slayer on this guy and killing him. If you can pull Giles aside and tell him though, that would be good. I gotta go." Xander sprinted from the barn to the new truck and peeled off in a cloud of dust.

Andrew stood nervously wringing his hands in the doorway before going to ring Alex. On his way through the living room he noted that the Babylon 5 DVDs hadn't mysteriously combusted yet.

* * *

Dawn was shaking all over when she reached the door of her homeroom at two-forty-five that day. She figured this was good though. Made her look really scared about being alone with him, which the creep would hopefully try to use to his advantage. She passed Fen on the way through the main doors. They'd said no more than "Hi" to each other before Fen had gone to sit outside the staff office. They agreed this was the best place to wait because it was close enough to hear anything untoward happening in their homeroom, but wouldn't draw suspicion. As a junior with a lot of electives, no one would think it was odd that Fen was waiting to catch a member of staff before they left for the day.

Dawn cleared her dry throat and let herself into the room. Mr Roberts was already at his desk. Sethos wasn't there, at least not yet, she'd never got the chance to speak to him earlier.

The teacher didn't look up as he instructed. "Take a book from the pile and start copying from page one."

She did as she was told and made her way back to her usual seat. She allowed her eyes to glance over the bookshelves at the back of the room and was relieved with what she saw. So far, so good.

She opened the American History book and began copying from it, glancing at the clock, the door and the teacher more than her book.

Ten minutes passed like this, the only noises in the room was the scratch of pens on paper as Dawn copied and Mr Roberts graded assignments, and the soft sound of the text book pages turning. Another ten passed the same way.

Dawn was just beginning to wonder if she should goad him into action because he didn't see all that interested in her at the moment. Was it possible she imagined the whole thing? Not likely, but maybe he'd decided she wasn't worth the bother, she had hit him pretty hard between the legs. That didn't mean she was going to let him get away with it though. He might not want to mess with her again, but he might pick on someone to scared to fight back next time.

She was gathering her courage to say something, when he stood from his desk and wandered casually over to the windows, he stood staring out for a moment before he pulled a chord and the blinds slid shut. The glare of the sun was blocked out, but it wasn't dark. It was possible the sun had just been in his eyes and he wanted to get rid of it. He sauntered just as casually back the other way to the door and stopped in front of it. From her seat Dawn couldn't see what he was doing but there was no mistaking the click of the key being turned. Her breath caught in her throat.

Taunting her with his slow moving actions he came over to her and perched on the desk in front, smiling.

"So Dawn, obviously you liked our little game last night, as you were dying to be alone with me again."

She didn't look up, but just kept scribbling in her notebook as she answered. "No sir, my sister was just late dropping me off."

"Well that's a shame, because I've been really looking forward to it all day." He was still smiling she realised when she chanced a look. "And I think you've got a little making up to do after yesterday's little performance."

"Yeah, and I'm thinking you're just asking for a repeat performance."

"No where to run this time little Miss Summers." From his pocket he pulled the old fashioned key he had taken from the door and showed it to her. "You can run around and around this room all you like, but you're just putting off the inevitable. I will get what I want from you today, and I you can give it willingly." He leaned on the edge of her desk and leaned forward until he was totally invading her personal space. "Or I can take it."

'This is all very incriminating.' Thought Dawn. 'But only if you're in this room, considering the damn camera has no frigging sound. I have to step it up a notch.'

"I'll scream." She promised.

"And I'll stop you. Anyway I have to, do you understand?"

"Oh yeah, I'd like to see you try." Dawn taunted.

Mr Roberts leaned back on the desk he was perched on and smiled at her. It reached his eyes, causing little wrinkles to appear in the creases. Her mother had always called them laughter lines. From the expression on his face the young student was expecting the teacher to come clean and tell her this had all been some elaborate joke, some scary initiation test she had now passed and could be let in on. She allowed herself to believe it when a warm chuckle escaped the smiling teacher and he looked at Dawn fondly.

Right up until he back-handed her across the face so hard she fell from her chair, taking it to the ground with her.


	5. Act four

"Okay I'll show you." He said standing up fully and coming around the edge of her desk where both she and the chair were sprawled across the floor. He kicked the chair into her side, making her groan loudly. Smiling his friendly teachery smile, he did it again.

"Owwwhh" She groaned as she tried to pull herself up. 'Ow, God that hurts, but he's just hit me in front of the camera, which is good. Maybe need just a little bit more, if my lungs haven't been punctured by the chair, and then the screaming starts in earnest.'

Mr Roberts noticed she was struggling to get up and kindly gave her a hand. By yanking her up her hair. He used his other hand to punch her hard in the stomach.

"That's for the kick to the 'nads you little bitch." He hissed.

The breath rushed out of her and she reflexively doubled over but his hand in her hair kept her upright and brought tears to her eyes.

Mr Roberts used his body to push her back into the desk and pulled her backwards by her hair so she was leaning awkwardly with a lot of his weight pinning her in place. She struggled as best she could but it just caused him to laugh and push against her harder.

'Okay this is not part of the plan. May-day, frickin' may-day. Time to call in the back up.' She thought as she struggled mentally to counter her fear. She opened her mouth to scream, but only managed a muffled shriek when he clapped his large hand over her mouth. She bit down hard but it just made him laugh harder as he untangled his other hand from her hair and pinched her nose.

'Oh God, official panic status has been reached. I can't breathe, can't breathe, can't breathe.' She bucked under him and shook her head from side to side trying to dislodge his hands from blocking her airways.

"You gonna be a good girl?" The teacher asked roughly.

Hysterically she nodded her head.

"Good." He said before removing his hands and kissing her hard on her mouth.

* * *

Sethos sauntered casually back towards the school's main entrance. As much as he didn't want to spend the afternoon in detention with sleazy Mr Roberts, he also couldn't take the risk of the educator following through on his threat to phone his father. That would just be unpleasant and he was dealing with enough unpleasantness already since moving to Boudenver. America in general had been a real let down so far and each town they moved to seemed to be that much further down the scale.

Shaking his head at the unfairness of it all he opened the main doors and silently said goodbye to the sunshine outside. He was half an hour late for detention so the teacher would probably keep him all evening just to punish him, the sun maybe on its way down before he got to see it again.

He walked past the staff office and spared a curious look for the blonde girl sat there. He couldn't remember her name, Jenny or something; he knew they were in the some of the same classes. She was shaking a little and anxiety was pouring off her in waves. He wrinkled his nose.

"You okay?" He asked in his exotic accent.

She visibly jumped at the sound of his voice. "Uh…yeah, I…I'm good." She didn't sound very convincing and her eyes kept darting to the door he was heading for and back to him again.

It was pretty clear she was lying, but hey that wasn't his problem. He nodded at her and carried on to the door when something else made him stop. His head jerked to the wall beside him that was covered in flyers and class schedules. His lips curled back revealing his teeth and he clenched and unclenched his hands a few times to keep himself under control.

The blonde sat on the chairs jumped up and shouted something as he burst through the classroom door but he didn't hear what she said over the noise of the splintering wood as the lock gave. He grinned horribly when he saw Mr Roberts looming over a terrified, crying Dawn Summers.

'Does this Summers kid live for trouble?' He thought before animalistic rage overtook him and he pounced at the evil teacher.

Mr Roberts had looked up the second he heard the crash of the door and for a second was frozen with indecision. He knew this couldn't be looking to good for him right now, but Hell what a chance to give the Sethos boy one hell of a beating before he skipped town. There was nothing he'd like more.

He watched gleefully as Sethos' face seemed to change as the emotions flowed across it. Dawn was still held down across the desk by his strong hands, but now he pulled her upright roughly and back handed her across the face before shoving her away from him hard. "Later Sweetheart." He mocked and then he had his arms full of the hissing, scratching senior and together they fell to the floor.

Fen had rushed to the doorway as soon as Seth had broken down the door and she watched as Mr Roberts hit Dawn hard across the face and then pushed her away. She was at her side just as she finished falling and had the unfortunate luck to here the cracking sound of her ribs smacking into the side of a desk before she tumbled to the floor dazed.

Dawn felt her head being cradled in Fen's lap and she blearily looked up at her, blinking her eyes a few times to rid them of stars. "What happened?" She'd heard the smashing of the door but hadn't been able to see who or what it was.

"Seth." Fen told her as if it explained everything. The blonde glanced at the shelf where earlier she had placed the camera and then looked down and wiped up the blood that had been trickling from her new friends nose with her own sleeve. The damn camera better had recorded it all. If this was all for nothing.

The man and the boy were still rolling around on the floor fighting. Mr Roberts had managed to get the upper hand thanks to his superior weight and height and was laying a few good punches on the seniors face, all the time grinning manically. Fen wondered if she should go and help, maybe wrap a chair around his head, but she didn't want to leave Dawn's side.

Chairs were knocked over and desk legs scraped across the floor as the two rolled around the room locked together in a messy struggle, each trying to dominate the other. Fen lost sight of them as another chair crashed to the floor on its side and blocked her view.

"Can you stand?" She asked thinking now might be a good time to get out.

"Uh huh, just give me a minute." Dawn, with her friends help, was able to sit, but her head swam a little and her ribs felt too tight to stand just yet.

A scream from Mr Roberts brought the girls attention back to them and they both looked over to find the teacher trying to scramble away from the student who was holding him firmly around the back of the neck preventing him from going anywhere.

"Get offa me." The teacher squealed before he was pulled back out of sight.

* * *

The new truck skidded to a halt out the front of school, and Xander leapt out of the door and started to run across the grass to the main doors only to realise he didn't have a clue where he was going. He had no idea where Dawn's class might be.

He was still deciding whether it was better to run blindly through the halls looking for her or check at the front desk when another vehicle skidded to a stop next to his truck. He turned and saw Alex in full cop uniform racing across the grass to him.

"Xander, what's going on?" He called out.

"Dawn's in trouble, but I don't know where she is?" He replied frantically.

Alex pushed past him, through the main doors and down the hall, looking through the little windows set into the doors. He pointed for Xander to take the doors on the other side of the hall to speed things up, but it was unnecessary because at that moment someone screamed and they both charged to the end of the hall where it came from.

The two men reached the busted open door at the same time, but Alex shot out a big hand and pushed Xander away from it.

"Stay here a minute." He instructed before heading through it himself.

'Yeah right.' Thought Xander, he could hear the crashing around going on inside and from where he stood he could just make out the top of Dawn's head; she was sitting on the floor, being held by a blonde girl. 'Dawn + floor probably not good.' He decided and went straight in anyway.

"Xander!" Dawn smiled weakly up at him as he bent down next to her and gathered her in his arms. She hugged him tightly and he carefully helped her to her feet.

The sounds of the fight stopped abruptly and all three looked over to see Alex kneeling on Mr Roberts' back while he snapped some handcuffs on him. Sethos was lying close by, his arms up shielding his face.

"Sethos, are you hurt?" Dawn tried to move towards the boy on the floor, but her side hurt too much and she slumped against Xander again.

Slowly, very slowly, Sethos removed his arms and peered up at them. His face was already coming out in bruises and his hands had blood on them but he shook his head. He looked up at the teacher, who had been dragged to his feet by Alex, who towered over him. Mr Roberts was sobbing and wincing in pain. He had deep gashes in one cheek and blood was seeping through his shirt from another deep cut in his chest.

"The little brute has a knife." Mr Roberts accused, still sobbing and looking pathetic.

Sethos was up and out the door before anyone could comment further, everyone looked at the door but no one moved to go after him.

"It's a pity he didn't use it on your throat then." Said Fen with a shaky voice, which earned her a small smile from Dawn and a shoulder squeeze from Xander.

"You're just going to let him get away, after he attacked me." Said the teacher, incredulous. "He burst in here, startling both myself and Miss Summers. He needs to be locked up, he's obviously completely deranged. Angry because I issued him with detention no doubt and violence is all his generation understand"

Alex stood there and listened to the man's rant, then took out his notebook and began writing everything he said down.

"I understand you're just doing your job here sheriff, and I was wrong to engage in a brawl with a student, but really, it was only self-defence, he caught me off guard pouncing on me like that. There's no need for the handcuffs. I'll happily come down to the station and answer any questions you have."

Alex just nodded and put away his notebook. Dawn's eyes bugged out. He didn't think he was really gonna get away with this did he? She really hoped the camera had worked or else there were no guarantees he wouldn't. She and Fen exchanged a glance.

"No way." The blonde said quietly. "Even if the camera didn't work, you are all beat up and he can't say Seth started on you too, can he."

Dawn nodded, but she was still a little anxious. Xander heard the exchange and looked over to where he had seen there gazes travel. Just hidden under a pyramid of old text books he could see the tiny black eye of the lense peeking out.

"Well I think I've heard enough for now." Alex boomed shutting Mr Roberts up with sheer volume. He pushed the teacher a little closer to the other three, then holding him straight armed out to one side so he was nowhere near Dawn he asked.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded.

"You look hurt; maybe Xander should take you to the hospital."

"No really, I'm okay, just bruised." She assured him.

He nodded. "Okay. Mr Roberts is going to be spending the night in the cells for hitting a minor." Mr Roberts started to protest self-defence again, but Alex shook him hard, obviously making his cuts hurt, because he grimaced and stayed quiet. "You'll have to come by and talk to me tomorrow, tell me the full story. Got it?"

She did get it. He was giving her a chance to calm down before she had to go through the ordeal of questioning, which meant he knew this was more than just a fight between Mr Roberts and Sethos. How did he know though? How come he was even here? And Xander? Somehow she thought maybe Andrew might be able to help her answer those questions. The real stumper was – Did she make him pay for it, or did she give him a big hug? And oh God, did that mean she owed Sethos a big hug too, 'cause that was just wrong.

Xander had been quietly standing next to Dawn, making sure she was okay, but now she stepped over to Alex and offered his hand. Alex had to let go of Roberts to shake, but the teacher wasn't going to risk running off and wrecking his 'all innocent' act.

"Thanks for getting here so quick." He said.

"No problem Xander. I just wish it hadn't been necessary. McKinley used to be such a good school but I guess standards are slipping."

Xander nodded amiably and took a very deliberate step back before catching Mr Roberts's eye.

"Hey pal. That was my kid sister you messed with." He told him.

"Messed with, what do you mean…?" The teacher began, but was cut off by Xander yanking on his ripped shirt, making him stumble forward. "Hey what are you…OW! My nose!"

Xander wiped his blood splattered fist on the teacher's shirt before pushing him lightly back towards Alex, who caught him by the arm again before he could fall over.

"He broke my nose." Mr Roberts whined miserably.

"I'm pretty sure that happened before we got there." Said Alex jovially as he started to push the man out of the classroom. "In fact I'm almost certain that was due to an unfortunate incident with a board eraser." Alex looked back over his shoulder and winked at Xander, who grinned back. Then quite sternly he spoke to Dawn. "The sheriffs department is here so you don't put yourselves in unnecessary danger. Try to remember that the next time you feel like playing hero. I'll see you tomorrow."

She nodded sheepishly. The cop and the teacher left the room and Dawn hobbled over to the bookshelf and carefully pulled the tiny camera out.

"Do you think we got?" Asked Fen

"I think someone's going to catch it when they get home." Xander put in.

"Andrew told you right?"

"He didn't want to, it involved sand paper." Said Xander with a straight face.

"Does Buffy know?"

"Not yet." The carpenter went to stand in front of her and looked her face over carefully, she had a hand shaped bruise appearing on one cheek and her nose had been bleeding. "Are you really…? Did he…did he hurt you?"

Dawn hung her head. "No. He wanted to but…No. He just roughed me up a little, it was kinda scary." She mumbled.

"Kinda scary? I was packing it." Said Fen.

"Yeah 'cause you had the hard job waiting outside." Dawn teased.

"Hey, don't knock it. Andrew told me your crazy plan and I was so scared that I wouldn't get here in time to stop it." Xander touched her face gently. "I guess I didn't."

"Yeah you did. Big brother." She smirked at him. The fear washing away and just leaving the adrenaline in its place. A familiar feeling despite the situation being a new one.

Xander put an arm gently around her waist and started to lead her out of the classroom. "Yeah well I figured that sounded more threatening than "Hey that's my friends little sister…" Besides there's nothing I wouldn't do for you that I wouldn't do for my own sister, if I had one, so if the cap fits you're stuck with me. That okay?"

"Definitely."

"Hey I wish I had a sexy older pretend brother like you." Said Fen, who had fallen into step beside them.

Dawn rolled her eyes at Fen and grinned at Xander when she realised he was blushing. "Fen - Xander, Xander – Fen."

He removed his arm from Dawn to shake Fen's hand. "Always nice to meet Dawn's new friends, especially the ones with good taste."

"Huh, you never said that about Janice."

"I said good taste Dawnie." He turned back to Fen. "It's the eye patch isn't it?"

Fen giggled.

Dawn did a double take and thought 'Did leather-jacket wearing, class-skipping Fen just giggle?'

* * *

Willow hit stop on the remote and silence descended, which was broken quickly by a strangled sob from Buffy and a strangled plea for her bruised ribs from Dawn, as her sister gathered her in a Slayer strength bear hug and sniffled into her shoulder.

After a second she relaxed her hold but she didn't let go completely. "You are a stupid, stupid, stupid idiot."

"I know." Dawn admitted quietly.

"You should have told someone. You should have told me, but if I was really that unapproachable then you should have told someone else."

"I told Andrew…and Fen."

"You should have told an adult, Andrew doesn't count. I'm just glad he had more sense than you on this occasion."

"I get it Buffy. I know I screwed up, but everyone seemed to have so much on and I thought I could handle it. It wasn't like it was a supernatural nasty, just a regular human."

"It doesn't matter how much we have going on Dawn, you can still come to us if you need to. Anytime, ever." Said Willow.

"I'm sorry you didn't feel like you could talk to me. I know I've been preoccupied and letting other stuff, stuff not important, get in the way of our new life here. I know I said when we closed the Hellmouth we'd have time for you and me, proper sister quality time and I've been to busy being a misery-guts to follow through on it and I promise, that changes now. Right now." Buffy let another sob escape her. "I'm so sorry I let you down."

"You didn't not really." Said Dawn. "I wanted to deal with it myself. I wanted to prove to everyone that I could. I figured I could lure him into my trap and video him being a bit nasty then call for help and hey presto I beat the bad guy. I was an idiot because I thought I could stop it before it got out of control and I couldn't. Both Andy and Fen warned me it could get out of hand but I thought just because I made a plan, it would actually work out that way. Like yours always do."

"Whoa. Since when did all of our plans work out?" Chuckled Buffy.

"Yeah, it's normally plan B, or C or even D that works. Plan A's never work." Agreed Willow with a grin.

"Well why didn't someone tell me that?" Groaned Dawn.

"Well maybe we would have if you'd told us plan A." Buffy twirled some of Dawn's hair through her fingers like she used to when they were younger. "Anyway the plan itself wasn't so crazy, it was the part that put you in danger that we would have vetoed."

"But Alex said they could use the video?" Asked Willow.

"Uh-huh. They won't even need me to go to court because once Mr Roberts found out about it he confessed everything, and then said that a voice inside his head made him do it. Xander said Alex thinks he's hoping for a lighter sentence, but Alex is going to throw everything he can at him. He was at another school teaching last year and they think he might have messed with a few girls there too and then left before they got up enough courage to tell anyone."

"And the boy, the one that helped you?" Asked Buffy.

"Well I haven't spoken to him yet what with not going to school today, but Alex said they spoke to him at home and he's off the hook for attacking Roberts. There was no way he had a knife 'cause they would have seen it on the video. They were fighting in front of it the whole time. Sethos apparently said that he must have scratched him with his fingernails by accident while they were struggling. He must have had pretty sharp nails though, those cuts were deep."

Willow rewound the video a little until it showed Mr Roberts and Sethos rolling around on the floor. They all watched Seth carefully for any sign of a knife or anything else that could have made the cuts. They watched as Sethos took a swipe at Mr Roberts and the man screamed silently, when he fell back four rips in his shirt were clearly visible and blood was already staining the material.

"Very sharp." Said Buffy.

Seconds later on the tape Alex and Xander ran in. Xander ran off screen while Alex went over to the fight, there was a little more struggling before the cop got the teacher on his stomach with his hands behind his back and Sethos rolled away flinging his arms up over his face.

"Will, rewind that bit and hit slow-mo." Said Buffy.

Willow did as she was told wondering what Buffy had spotted; the fight was over after all. Buffy moved to the edge of her seat for a closer look.

"There, just as he rolls over before he raises his hands." She pointed at the screen. "Do his ears look normal to you?"

Willow hit rewind again and slow-mo again just as the boy rolls away.

"They look a little…I don't know, pointy, maybe." Said Willow, hesitantly.

"Do they normally look like that?" Buffy asked her sister.

Dawn thought about it. "I don't think so." She said slowly. "And I'm pretty sure the tail's new too."

Buffy slapped her hand over her sister's eyes. "That's not a tail."

Willow hit rewind again for a closer look.

"Well I'm not an expert, but if it's not a tail, I think the guy is seriously deformed." Dawn tried to wriggle away from her sister's hand.

"Buffy. I think she's right." Said Willow.

Buffy let Dawn go to stare at the screen again herself. There was definitely a blur of movement at the back of his pants as he rolled over. The angle was off but it looked as if something about two feet long had quickly retracted into his…, well the angle really was off, maybe they were imagining it.

"If it's not a tail, that boy is really talented." Remarked Buffy.

The three girls rewound the video over and over again trying to catch another glimpse of the "tail" but there was only that quick sighting.

The phone rang, disturbing them and Willow got up to get it.

"Well I'm going outside with the girls to do something normal." Said Dawn getting to her feet.

"Yeah 'cause trying to teach a baby demon to play catch is really normal behaviour." Buffy sarcastically pointed out.

"Hey Goorzar is cute, you think so too." Grinned Dawn and disappeared.

Buffy shook her head. 'What next?' She wondered.

Willow walked back through to the living room, an uneasy look on her face.

"Who is it Wills?" Buffy asked, rewinding the tape again for another look at Dawn's strange classmate.

Willow hesitated. "It's…uh…it's…"

"Spit it out." Buffy looked up at her friend with a smile.

"It's Faith."

Buffy went pale. "No…no I can't. Will…" Buffy stood up and started backing towards the front stairs. "I can't speak to her."

"Its okay Buf, she asked for you or Giles, but I'll just say you're not here." Willow was concerned at her reaction. Something definitely wasn't right. Buffy had seemed okay today, well since last night really. The slayage with Kennedy the afternoon before had seemed to knock some of the chip off of her shoulder and then news of Dawn's escapades had freaked her so much that once she realised that her sister really was just bruised she'd seemed to bounce back to her old self. Willow didn't want Faith sending her back to the land of crazy again.

She went to the phone. "Sorry Faith, I can't find either of them. Can I help at all?"

Buffy retreated to half way up the front stairs and hugged her knees as she rocked backwards and forwards. It occurred to her that she'd done the same thing when she lived in L.A. and her parents would fight all the time. She didn't know why, it wasn't particularly comforting, but she didn't stop.

Why was Faith calling her, just when she'd made up her mind to put all that behind her for good? She'd accepted that Faith didn't want her. It took a week of drinking alone in a dingy hotel and then a couple of days of arguing with friends and family to finally accept that, but she had. What had happened yesterday made her realise that she had a family here, a life here, the fresh new start she'd always wanted and she was destroying it all over a woman who didn't even care.

'And is Faith calling really gonna make me forget all my wonderful resolutions.' She wondered. 'I should talk to her and tell her to go to hell. How dare she phone me after the stuff she said last week?'

"Buffy?"

"I'm out here Will." She called quietly in case Faith was still on the phone.

Willow came out into the hall and saw Buffy sitting halfway up the stairs. "Don't go away."

She disappeared, and then reappeared with a tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream and two spoons. She came up the stairs and squeezed onto the same step as Buffy and handed her a spoon.

Buffy accepted with a weak smile. "What did she want?"

Willow dug her spoon in the brown flecked green ice cream. "To talk to Giles. Seems her new cell mate is a Slayer. She wanted to know what to do?"

"So she didn't call to talk to me." Said Buffy around a mouthful of ice-cream. "Okay that's even worse."

"She really hurt you didn't she." It wasn't a question. "You don't have to talk about this Buf, if you don't want to, but my ears are yours if you do."

"There's nothing to tell." Buffy said in a flat tone. "She doesn't love me, that's it. What she said in the letter she really meant, it wasn't about her needing to do stuff, not even jail stuff, it was about her trying to let me down easy. Of course I went and messed up that noble plan by visiting her." She took another scoop of ice-cream. "She doesn't even know if she wants to come back here if she gets out. She said she will for a bit to talk, which I assume means she'll be expecting to get some, and then she'll take off again."

"You're not going to though, are you?" Willow wanted to make sure that Buffy wasn't just gonna jump into bed with Faith and start this whole sad Slayer merry-go-round again.

Buffy ducked her head and shrugged. "I'm not planning on it. Never planned on sleeping with Spike either, or falling in love with Faith in the first place. Dawn didn't plan on nearly getting raped by a teacher. Plans fall through all the time."

"But Buffy…"

"Look Will, I spent the last week in a motel room drinking Jack Daniels from the bottle and crying over Faith."

"You weren't in L.A. all week then?" Willow asked shocked. They'd all assumed.

"Hell no. Faith told me she didn't want me visiting again, or hanging around 'til the appeal and Angel, Gunn and Wes are all visiting her. I didn't want to hear them talking about her all the time. I jumped on the first plane to Cleveland I could find and didn't sober up until a few hours before my taxi brought me back here."

"Why didn't you come home?"

"I was a mess…and I wanted to stay a mess. I really did a number on myself about Faith. I convinced myself that we were the Chosen Two and that meant we were supposed to be together, you know, one of those destiny things." She laughed bitterly at herself. "Shoulda know they never work out. I needed to time to wallow; I guess I should have taken more time." She looked at Willow sadly. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to come home all bad and moody. I meant what I said earlier about this being a new start. I've neglected all of you since…well since Sunnydale fell off the face of the earth, before that even and I'm going to make it up to you. I don't really want to go back to patrol full time, but maybe I can work with the girls around here and I'll totally help Kennedy with any strategies she wants help with and you, me, Xander and Giles have to spend some quality time together. Like we used to, I'm sure this place is a party town behind its dead as a dodo facade."

Willow looked sceptical and both women started laughing.

Willow stopped first and smiled fondly at her friend. "It's good to have you back Buffy."

Buffy smiled back. "Yeah well I've told you why I'm all bad and moody, what was your excuse this morning. Or was it just a knock on affect from me."

Willow grimaced. "I've been a bit preoccupied all week." She said cryptically.

"Why?" Pushed the Slayer

"Uh werewolves mostly."

"I thought that was all sorted, in a "Plan gone wrong" kind of way." Buffy chuckled. "Don't worry, Ken will get them next time and we'll all help."

Willow didn't look any happier.

"Ohh, it's the Oz thing isn't it. Werewolves remind you of him, which is fair enough and totally justifies the distractedness and if you wanna talk about him, well, my ears are open for Willow business too."

Willow looked pained. "I think he may be here in Boudenver. In fact I think he may have kind of saved my life last week."

"Well that's okay, isn't it? I mean you and Oz were cool last time he left and if he's all with the life save-age then he's obviously still cool now. Hang on what do you mean you think he saved your life, surely you'd recognise him. I know it's been a while but…"

"He was a wolf at the time."

Buffy nodded, "Okay confusion clearing… a little. Are you sure it was him?"

"Pretty much. He looked at me, I mean the wolf looked at me and I just felt something go through me when I looked into his eyes, but it was all over to quick to really tell. Kennedy went to kill him and I had to stop her and then he was gone."

"Kennedy tried to slay your ex-boyfriend, you know Will sometimes I swear we live in a soap opera. What did she say when you told her you thought it was Oz? Did she freak that she almost killed him or did she freak that your ex was there? She seems like the jealous type."

"Well that's the thing; I've never told her about Oz at all and now I don't know where to start what with him being here and all."

Willow looked so dejected that Buffy leaned over and around the slowly melting tub of ice-cream and gave her a hug.

"It'll be okay Will. You'll see, I mean if we can face apocalypses then surely our tumultuous love lives can't be that much trouble."

"Pah." Said Willow into Buffy's hair.

Kennedy came out of the living room carrying a grunting baby demon. "Hey if it's cuddles time don't leave me and Goorzy out." Said lightly, pleased to see Buffy and Willow making up at last. Willow had been pout-y and distracted for a week, maybe now things could get back to normal.

Buffy pulled out of the hug and shook her head at the younger Slayer. "I can't believe you've become so attached to that thing."

"Don't call her a thing, you'll hurt her feelings. I think she needs a kiss from Auntie Buffy now to make it better."

Kennedy held the small ape like demon out towards Buffy's face who squealed and jumped over the side of the stairs to get away. Goorzar squealed back and Kennedy burst out laughing.

"Chicken." Kennedy shot after Buffy. "You okay honey?" She asked Willow who was still sitting on the stairs holding the ice-cream tub.

Willow looked down at Buffy who gave her a silent thumbs up and she looked back at her girlfriend.

"Can we talk?"

Kennedy's face instantly became guarded. "What about?"

"Oh it's not the break-up talk, nothing like that." The red-head said quickly to reassure her. "There's just some stuff I need to tell you." She patted the step which Buffy had just vacated.

Kennedy sat down. "Shoot."

Willow took a deep breath and began to tell her everything from meeting Oz at the careers fair to his capture by the Initiative and the reason he had left town again.

Kennedy listened intently and Goorzar, un-noticed by the two women, used her finger to scoop out the melty green ice cream and slurp it off with her long blue tongue.


End file.
